i itt ie ὙΠ Ν ΓΝ 
eins ner Meh 


s ‘aay i ikon i 
4 Ma ΠΝ Pat ἢ pets # 
ἢ Ὁ hy ἮΝ an ἢ i oe Vey yt 
eit ie ὭΣ wi eee μὴν Nanas hip my, I a Migs 
ba aa avawy See ‘i i ai Hh aa Hue phot Maal tly ae Bee Hs a 
" mua ὧν; [ ΠΝ ee " Ἂν 44 γῇ ἈΚ Ὰ Ι͂ ed 
poaicetcseecatanese , ware ae thal a car Cp at an Ft Ae mre Ay ᾿ "Ὡς Ss wa MW 
Py, Wee Pc ah 5 pehionit: "4 "ἢ ae ih wn ue - nd 
SS Se —— me con is tie Pace sai He wae: Be oy γ᾿ τὴν 
ὌΝ 4 ‘Mi ἍΝ ΓΝ eer rere) "3 
Asia eee tale: fn nas ves 
Bhi a ‘i aye Nye rege chy ΙΝ ᾽ 
Hieeebs 1 \ Mie ΟΝ oe "ἢ ἀρ να 
La Se Ἢ. Ἂν vee fy wt rh eh eas pe ae) hy 
ἰὴ μεῖον ΤᾺ eee ot aie! Mie NOD nO aoe Ἂ ae NI, »» ν ie fe 
Hey hasta ur Οὐ; ἀν gel ΠΤ Ὁ ἄν, ; Wow whey ty ja aa " i carne ΠΡ ἡ" ¥ yeh i κὴ 
ν ἘΞ ἀδεὲς prema sheer ai" nye Mi Ponte eo) Wea fl ed a se Ava ον ie γὴν " μὲν te ae iid 
᾽ i ἐν ὶ ) i Pa ee at ιν ou f fy 
Se morn ot Nn Cranial on ES eager ΩΝ Κῶ seca ig eel ὌΝ πα 
i vee - wy a ea ‘ <3 ne w ay, γ᾽ νον όνν why aed ΤῊΝ ' “Aba pay Ge Waa Oe oe “ei, ἘΡΉΜΗΝ oa 
sehtatetes aa ey aaa Need si caghetwavstesuners cess Wen teh αὐγήν, oon rcets meat Pea a 
= ane ai parerrgaiy (Bhs! ech ee cul PANN Hala On taWUL εν, de nye sone ont py fae 1 ana a 
' eae inte me 4 bapa 4 RS we a wea yh ‘int nd ΟΝ δ ν ὌΝ ἂν iy ἢ ΠΑΥ̓Η ΟῚ ᾽ν Ms Mad ΤΣ ‘ 
ibe ane gr, Coe ae ΓΝ ‘ hey | mi ᾿ " i ὟΝ } fal 
te ΟΝ ΩΝ, ' πο 


oe ren, rates wee 
ΠΝ νι νιν 


mth ieee ote ΑΝ a 
eta i 
he τος, --- inal ΙΝ μεν ΟΝ "Ὁ" 4 ΜΗ ὃ 
Ra ΔΑΝ ΝΝΛΑΜΑΣΩΝ ἥδ AS Ona, ena y ert 
satiate alge wenn hamomn Pee ii ke 
det oN ah ae ae 


ΓΝ 


aoa 


ἐδ δῆς he oe On ΝΣ aa 


ἡνύνενν retin PW ev Mea weet Ἢ 


a ΔῸΣ ΓΗ ΓΟ anew ἐν Ν ra 


Wrbrovens yo i ae Pe ee ΚΑΚ i 


a 


eo ai saa j 


My 
ἡ rr) a ἥν . 
οἷς ey Mr ΣΝ 
yi, sateewtncuensnces ὃν te 
vfolety I CS Cota h Se ἐλ νῦν MMO MMM 


erenrenteneneyenannnererh 


"Ἂς ὙΧΎΚΎ ὙΟΧ' ee tL Cee i sepei dpe tala aan dled Alla Melia hs based ; 
dinate 0 eacae Ἡ se pies satan oe Ng a, nae ise raeLonvee ee Seiad f 


τὰ eh haath hall a Cen a 


7 ΡΝ aati aaa 


ἜΣ ee of Soreeremrorires SPW ML I eae 
& iat ne ΜΟΥ ee 

ee aa a ee 

ΟΣ. #4 


ΟΝ ” ἜΣ 
# oft My me μὰ ih Hd : 


σῶν ΡΣ 


οἱ the Gheologicy) Sry 


Up, 
tye 
PRINCETON, N. J. ἐν 


Library of Dr: A. A. Hodge. Presented. 


ἐν 


Ϊ J ᾿ ; ¢ * 
οὐ rime) τ ΧΑ." Pero. 
Oe ae oe Meee cohen fy 


ii 


INTRODUCTION 


TO THE 


TUDY OF THE GOSPELS. 


ζΩ 


WITH 


HISTORICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. 


BY 


BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, M.A. 


FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AUTHOR OF A ‘‘ HISTORY 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CANON,” ETC. 


WITH 
An dIntrovuction 


BY 


ΘΙ ΤΟ SE GH ACIGET £: Dep. 


PROFESSOR IN NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION; AUTHOR OF “Α COMMENTARY ON 
TUE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES,” “ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE,” ETC, 


BOSE ON: : 
Ὄπ σα NC. OF LNs 


59 WASHINGTON STREET. 
NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
CINCINNATI: GEORGE S. BLANCIIARD. 


1862. 


δι» ΕΥ̓ - 53 


ἥν}, Ν οὐ ὩΣ δ δ) % = Τῇ ἐλᾷ ἢ ΓΕ 
J 


Se ΡΤ paar to Act of Congress, 5 the year 1862, by . % he 
Mihi GOULD AND LINCOLN, > 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


w. F. Draper, Printer and Electrotyper, 
Andover, Mass. 


Go my Mather. 


Εὐλόγως ὁ διδάσκαλος ἡμῶν ἔλεγεν' 


ΓΙΝΕΟΘΕ ΤΡΑΠΕΖΙΤΑΙ ΔΟΚΙΜΟΙ. 


INTRODUCTION 


TO 


PEE ANY eeCAaAN DI TEON: 


Mr. WEstcorTtT, the author of the volume which the American 
publishers have here reprinted, was formerly a Fellow of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, and is now one of the Masters in Harrow 
School. He enjoys a high reputation in his own country as a 
scholar and a theologian, and is held to be a writer of acknowledged 
authority on the subjects which he has brought within the circle 
of his studies. His work on the Canon of the New Testament is 
well known, on this side of the Atlantic as well as abroad, as a 
performance of great learning and ability. Some of the more 
elaborate articles in Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible are from 
his pen. This Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, his latest 
work, was published during the last year, and has been received 
with marked favor in England. Competent judges in this country 
who have examined the treatise agree in their estimate of its 
value to the cause of sacred learning. It was found that different 
persons were so much impressed with its merit and its adaptation 
to meet a palpable want of the times, that they had been led, 
without concert with each other, to adopt measures to reissue the 
volume here, and thus render it more accessible to the American 
public. 

Perhaps I cannot better accomplish the object of these introduc- 
tory words, than by alluding briefly to some of the characteristics 
of the work which deserve attention. It must be an imperfect 

1* 


VI INTRODUCTION. 


sketch; for a careful study of the treatise itself is necessary to 
give the reader any idea of its character that would be just to 
the author. 

In all ages of the church the Gospels, which describe the life and 
record the teachings of the Saviour, have been regarded by believers 
as the primary source of their faith and hopes, and by skeptics as 
the ground on which they could most effectually assail the claims 
of Christianity and of the sacred writings to a divine origin. The 
peculiar character of the Gospel narratives, as separate and inde- 
pendent histories, has enabled objectors to compare them with 
each other, and to point out variations which they allege to be 
contradictory, and hence subversive of the historical credibility of 
the Evangelists. Porphyry in the third century had already taken 
the position, in this respect, which Strauss and his followers occupy 
at the present day. It must be confessed that the friends of the 
truth have often set forth views of the Gospels as historical com- 
positions, have prescribed to the writers of them an order of nar- 
ration, and made them subject to assumed laws of inspiration, with 
which it is not easy to reconcile the facts of the case; and oppo- 
nents have thus been able to show that, according to such standards 
of judgment, the Gospels do not answer to the character which is 
claimed for them. No small degree of ignorance respecting what 
the Evangelists have done and proposed to do, as ascertained from 
the actual contents and structure of the histories, has been shown 
on both sides of this controversy. The chief object of the present 
work is to present to us the results of a critical and comprehensive 
examination of the Gospels, for the purpose of settling the princi- 
ples which distinguish them from other writings, the points of agree- 
ment and disagreement which exist between them, the plan on 
which they are composed, the peculiar traits of the several writers 
as individuals, their diverse training, mental habits, differences of 
style; and thus, by means of the apparent contrariety itself, estab- 
lishing their character of essential unity, and of harmony both 


with the truth and with one another. Such a vindication of these 


ΓΙ OD UGE LON: VII 


Scriptures is essential to their authority as truthful records, and 
preliminary, therefore, to a proper use of them as a source of 
religious instruction and discipline. Hence it will be seen with 
what significant propriety this book, which is founded to such an 
extent on a study of the Gospels, has been entitled an “ Introduc- 
tion to the Study of the Gospels.” 

But the accomplishment of this more immediate object requires 
the author to introduce other related topics of great importance 
in the study of the New Testament. The Saviour performed his 
earthly work among the Jews; and the system of truth which his 
teachings perfected passed through the Jewish mind to the rest 
of the human family. It becomes, therefore, an interesting inquiry 
what was the process of intellectual and moral education which 
adapted this remarkable people to be the instructors of mankind ; 
and, in order to comprehend fully the scheme of revelation, we 
must view the inspired writers in their connection with the manifold 
national influences which wrought out the Jewish type of faith and 
character, as it appeared at length in its completed form in the first 
promulgators of Christianity. The chapter on the Preparation for 
the Gospel is designed to supply this information. It enables us to 
see how God from the first had been arranging all the antecedents 
of the chosen race, to fit them to be the medium through which 
his final and highest revelations of truth were to be made to Jews 
and Gentiles. It is shown that the bondage in Egypt, the Assyrian 
captivity, the Persian rule, the Maccabean dynasty, the contact 
with Greeks and Romans, as well as the numerous changes which 
took place in the inner life of the nation, all served to bring forward 
“the fulness of the times,” and to discipline the people for the 
advent of Christ. The development of this train of thought will 
be found to be original and instructive. The section on the Jewish 
Idea of the Messiah, as presented in the Bible and other writings, 
is an admirable summary of the most reliable results of the re- 
searches of scholars on this subject, so vitally connected with the 
interpretation of the Scriptures. The account of the Apocryphal 


Vill INTRODUCTION. 


Gospels is necessarily brief; but furnishes ample means for answer- 
ing the important questions which arise out of the known existence 
of such Gospels, for which some in early times claimed a high place 
as a source of traditionary and supplementary knowledge respect- 
ing the Saviour’s history. Though the author’s plan does not 
require a formal exegesis of extended portions of the text, the 
reader will meet here with the exposition of many single passages, 
and with forms of translation which show the hand of a master in 
philology. The distribution of the miracles and parables of our 
Lord into different classes according to the moral ends or the 
aspects of religious truth which they were designed to confirm or 
illustrate, evinces a rare power of analysis, and will be useful to 
the preacher for homiletic purposes. 

Tt is an important feature of the work, that, though it is intended 
specially to refute the form of skepticism represented, for example, 
by Strauss in Germany, and by Theodore Parker in this country, 
it is not directly polemic in its character, but treats of facts and 
discusses principles which render the argument appropriate to 
all times and places. The author seeks to accomplish his object 
by a negative process rather than a positive, by instruction and not 
by controversy. He is not so anxious to overwhelm the error, as 
to remove the ignorance and correct the misstatements out of which 
the error has arisen. 

A work so distinguished by its ample learning, its thorough criti- 
cism, its calm and philosophical spirit, its vigorous and polished 
style, must challenge the respect of every class of readers, whatever 
may be their claims as scholars or their particular belief on the 
subjects here brought under review. At the same time, it is grat- 
ifying to see the evidence everywhere apparent of the author’s 
convictions as a devout Christian, and a firm believer in the author- 
ity and inspiration of the Sacred Word. A tone of hearty con- 
fidence in the Scriptures, as true and the source of truth, pervades 
the work. Though the discussions are necessarily critical in their 


character, and afford but little room for the direct exhibition of 


INTRODUCTION. ΙΧ 


personal feeling, they show at every step the unobtrusive influence 
of an earnest faith, and a desire, as the predominant aim, to con- 
vince the understanding for the sake of the conscience and the 
heart. 

The writer’s experience as a teacher of biblical exegesis has 
led him to think, that there is no portion of the New Testament 
on which it is so difficult to give to the instruction imparted a 
character of unity and completeness, as the Gospels. The subject 
has, no doubt, its intrinsic difficulties, which no labor can wholly 
overcome. The time usually devoted to this part of the course 
of study is and must be disproportionate to the amount of work to 
be performed. It is possible to read and compare the different 
narratives only in some of the more important sections. Very 
few are able, in such a rapid survey of the ground, to lay up in 
their minds a connected view of the events of the Saviour’s life. 
The impression of his character as unfolded in his works is liable 
to be indistinct and confused. Numberless questions respecting 
the plan of the Evangelists and the mode of reconciling them with 
each other have been thrust on the student, of which he has ob- 
tained no adequate solution. The use of the “Harmony,” so 
called, may have thrown light upon many passages; but it will not 
be strange if it has disclosed almost as many perplexities as it has 
served to clear up. Every teacher must feel that a chief obstacle 
in the way of greater success here has been the want of suitable 
manuals or text-books of instruction, to be placed in the hands of 
students as an accompaniment of the ordinary lectures and oral 
teaching. We are confident that this work of Mr. Westcott will 
do much to supply this deficiency. It will not be amiss to say, that 
we welcome as another important aid of this nature the recently 
published “ Lectures on the Life of Christ,” by Professor Ellicott.t 


Such additions to our means of critical study invest the writings 


1 HistoricaAL LECTURES ON THE LIFE OF OUR LorD JESUS CHRIST. With 
Notes, Critical, Historical, and Explanatory. By C.J. Ellicott, Ρ. Ὁ. Boston: 
Gouldand Lincoln. 1861. 


x INTRODUCTION. 


of the Evangelists with new interest, and place the student of the 
Bible in a new condition for the useful and the more nearly ex- 
haustive study of these first sources of Christian truth.! 

The work has been reprinted in strict conformity with the Eng- 
lish edition, except a few changes in the mode of designating the 
divisions, which consistency of plan and distinctness seemed to 
require. Pains have been taken to secure accuracy in the nu- 
merous proper names, titles of books, extracts from foreign lan- 
guages, and similar details, so important in a learned treatise of 
this character. Mr. Westcott, who has been consulted in reference 
to the republication here, has forwarded some additions and cor- 
rections, which have been inserted in accordance with his wishes; 
and in this respect it may be claimed that this edition has some 
superiority to the original English edition. 

It is a matter of gratitude that such a book has been written. It 
is hoped that it will recieve the attention from theological teachers, 
theological students, clergymen, and thoughtful readers of every 
class, to which its claims entitle it. The writer believes that many 
will join their prayers with his that God would be pleased to bless 
this endeavor to “convince gainsayers,” and to lead believers to a 
larger measure of the “full assurance of faith and understanding” 
in the word and work of the Divine Redeemer. 


1 The object here is not criticism, and this general commendation will not be 
understood to imply an assent to all the views and principles which the emi- 
nent writers referred to entertain. 


NEwTon CENTRE, APRIL, 1861. 


PREFACE’ 


In the present work I have endeavored to define and fill 
up the outline which I sketched in “ THE ELEMENTS OF THE 
GospeL Harmony,” published in 1851. The kindness with 
which that Essay was received encouraged me to work on 
with patience within the limits which I had marked out, in 
the hope that I might justify in some degree the friendly 
welcome of my critics. The experience of nine years has 
made me feel how much there was to remodel and correct 
and explain in the first rough draught, so that I have 
retained scarcely a paragraph in the form in which it was 
originally written. 

The title of the book will explain the chief aim which I 
have had in view. It is intended to be an Introduction to 
the Study of the Gospels. I have therefore confined myself 
in many cases to the mere indication of lines of thought and 
inquiry, from the conviction that truth is felt to be more 
precious in proportion as it is opened to us by our own work. 


From this cause a combination of references to passages of 


1 A few sentences have been dropped here from the Prefaces in the English 
edition, inasmuch as they relate chiefly to local or personal explanations. 


ΧΙ PREFACE. 


Scripture often stands for the argument which it suggests, and 
claims are made upon the reader’s attention which would be 
unreasonable if he were not regarded as a fellow-student with 
the writer. For the same reason I have carefully avoided the 
multiplication of references, confining myself to the acknowl- 
edgment of personal debts or to the indication of sources of 
further information. 

My chief object has been to show that there is a true mean 
between the idea of a formal harmonization of the Gospels 
and the abandonment of their absolute truth. It was cer- 
tainly an error of the earlier Harmonists that they endeavored 
to fit together the mere facts of the Gospels by mechanical 
ingenuity ; but it is surely no less an error, in modern critics, 
that they hold the perfect truthfulness of Scripture as a 
matter of secondary moment. The more carefully we study 
the details of the Bible, the more fully shall we realize their 
importance; and daily experience can furnish parallels to 
the most intricate conjectures of commentators, who were 
wrong only so far as they attempted to determine the exact 
solution of a difficulty, when they should have been contented 
to wait in patience for a fuller knowledge. 

Again: it must have occurred to every student of the Gos- 
pels that it cannot be sufficient to consider them separately. 
We must notice their mutual relations and constructive force. 
We must collect all their teaching into a great spiritual whole, 
and not rest satisfied with forming out of them an accurate, 
or even a plausible history. The general schemes which I 
have attempted to give of the miracles and parables will 
probably be so far satisfactory as to direct some attention to 
the wonderful harmonies which yet lie beneath the simplicity 


of Scripture. 


PREFACE. XIII 


Once again: it seems to be a general opinion that the Bible 
and the Church — Scripture and Tradition —are antithetical 
in some other way than as uniting to form the foundation of 
Christianity. I trust that the history of Inspiration which 
I have appended to this Essay may serve, in some measure, 
to remove an error which endangers the very existence of 
all Christian Communions. . 

The quotations which occur from time to time, I need 
hardly say, are derived from the original sources; and I 
trust that I have carefully acknowledged my obligations to 
others. In the history of Inspiration I could have wished 
to have found more trustworthy guides. Rosenmiiller and 
Sonntag are partial and inexact, and Hagenbach is neces- 
sarily meagre. Every one, however, who has paid any atten- 
tion to Patristic literature, will heartily acknowledge the deep 
debt of gratitude which he owes to the Benedictines of St. 
Maur. 

In a subject which involves so vast a literature much must 
have been overlooked; but I have made it a point at least to 
study the researches of the great writers, and consciously to 
neglect none. My obligations to*the leaders of the extreme 
German schools are very considerable, though I can rarely 
accept any of their conclusions. But criticism even without 
reverence may lay open mysteries for devout study. 

On one question alone I have endeavored to preserve a 
complete independence. With one exception I have carefully 
abstained from reading anything which has been written on 
the subject of Inspiration since my first Essay was published. 
It seemed to me that it might be a more useful task to offer 
the simple result of personal thought and conviction than to 
attempt within narrow limits to discuss a subject which is 

2 


XIV PREFACE. 


really infinite. At times independence is not dearly pur- 
chased by isolation; and one who speaks directly from his 
own heart on the highest truths, may suggest, even by the 
most imperfect utterance, something fresh or serviceable. 
Above all things, in this and other points of controversy, we 
cannot remind ourselves too often that arguments are strong 
only as they are true, and that truth is itself the fullest con- 
futation of error. 

How impossible it is to avoid errors in travelling over so 
wide a field, those will best know who have labored in it; 
and those who detect most easily the errors, from which I 
cannot hope to be free, will, I believe, be most ready to par- 
don them. But besides the fear of errors in detail, there is 
another consideration which must be deeply felt by every one 
who writes on Holy Scripture. The infinite greatness of the 
subject imparts an influence for good or for evil to all that 
bears upon it. The “winged word” leaves its trace, though 
the first effect may be, in the old Hebrew image, transient as 
the shadow of a flying bird. Yet I would humbly pray that 
by His blessing, who is perfect Wisdom and perfect Light, 
what has been written with candor and reverence may con- 
tribute, however little, to further the cause of Truth and 
Faith, the twin messengers of earth and heaven. In His 
HAND ARE BOTH WE AND OUR WORDS. 


B. F. W. 


Harrow, LENT, 1860. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 


PAGE 
The connection of Philosophy and Religion in regard to the progressive 
development and the essential need of revelation; and the special 
objections brought against it, . . . 27—99 
The general effects of the course of Modern ‘iidsopne. 6 on the ὁ wees 
views of Christianity, and Holy Scripture specially, as regards, 


I. Its InsprraTion. II. Its ComPLuTENEss. III. Its INTERPRETATION, 30 


I. INSPIRATION. 


The contrast of the Calyinistic and Modern views — General objec- 
tions to both— The possibility ofa mean, . - ᾿ Ἔ . 981-89 


1. THE GENERAL IDEA OF INSPIRATION. 


Compared with Revelation— Believed in universally —In- 
volves no special difficulties incapable of analysis, . . 34—386 


2.THE Form oF INSPIRATION. 


Pagan — Biblical— Various, yet always twofold, . : . 36—38 
The personality of the teacher preserved — This is an essen- 

tial part of the conception, the expression, the record, . 89, 40 
Thus the inspiration of Scripture is plenary, and yet progres- 

sive, . : - δ : - 5 : Ὁ Ξ 3 ὃ 41 


8. THE RELATION ΟΕ INSPIRED WRITINGS TO CHRISTIAN LiFE, 42, 48 


XVI CONTENTS. 


4. THE PROOFS OF THE INSPIRATION OF WRITINGS. See 
(a) External. 
i. Supernatural commission of Apostles. 
ii. Analogy of Apostolic use of Old Testament. 
iii. Testimony of the Church, ξ es Ε - . 48, 44 
(8) Internal. 
How far a proof is possible, : 5 : ὦ . 44, 45 
6. g., Gospels. 
i. Negative Character — Fragmentary: Unchronolog- 
Hes SIM plese ty cam ote. Wao Maite nly ses ies naire eS OT, 
ii. Subject, Stars 5 : 5 Ξ 5 5 = 48 


iii. Social teaching— Miracles: Parables: Prophecies, . 49—53 


II. COMPLETENESS. 


DIFFICULTIES — Analogous to those in Individual: Society: Na- 
ture— Their solution to be found in the idea of Providence — 
History and Criticism suggest the idea of completeness, or at 
leasta tendency towardsit, . . °. +. . «.« . «. §d—59 


Til. INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE TWOFOLD: 


1. LITERAL. 


Strictly grammatical: importance of this in New Testament 
— Objections met, . 5 : : - 2 Ε ον, 59—63 


2. SPIRITUAL. ° 


Flows from literal: sanctioned by universal testimony. 
The spiritual sense the primary sense, ° . : A 65 
Interpretation realized in the visible Church, ° Saat ἦς 65 


THE PROVINCE OF CRITICISM, . oh ite Sikes THR. - 65, 66 


GENERAL PLAN, . as the . . . ° . . 5 . 66, 67 


CONTENTS. XVII 


CHAP TER i. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


PAGE 
The true idea of History —The coming of Christ the centre of human 


history, and the record of the Gospel impressed with results of a 
world-wide training, the outlines of which are 


I. PARTLY PRESERVED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, and 


II, PARTLY TO BE SOUGHT IN THE POST-BIBLICAL HISTORY OF THE 
JEWS, which is pregnant with important issues, both from outward 
vicissitudes and inward revolutions, during the (1) Persian and (2) 
Grecian periods; and here especially the foundations of Christian 
thought and writing were laid silently and slowly, Seas -  « 68—74 


1, Tor PERSIAN PERIOD; as to 


(a) National hopes. 
The loss of independence gave to the Jews a truer 
spiritual union, and higher aspirations, . 5 - 74,75 
(b) Spiritual position. 


As a consequence the prophetic work ceased, and the 
Scriptures were collected — Meanwhile religion as- 
sumed a more spiritual character, and the view of 
the spiritual world was widened, 6 - - - 106-18 


(6) Social organization. 
The hierarchical element prevailed from the growing 


regard to the Law and the Synagogue-service, A tier te 


The dangers of the period —Its character impressed on the 
literature and traditions of the time, . . . . . 80—82 


2. THE GRECIAN PERIOD. 


The Dispersion, military and commercial, reconciled with 


unity by the Syrian persecution, . - 3 > - . 82—86 
o* 


XVIII CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
The internal history of the Jews. 
(a) In Palestine ; during 
i. The Grecian supremacy. 
Rise of speculation — Sadducees; Pharisees; Es- 
senes, . 5 ὃ ᾿ : : δ 3 ¢ . 86—90 


The prevalent Legalism to be traced in Ecclesias- 
ticus and the traditional sayings of the doctors, 91, 92 


ii. The Hasmonzan supremacy. 
Impulse given to thought and writing (Baruch). 
Revelation : 
The Book of Henoch —IV. Esdras, Br ἀν ΘῈ 86) 
Didactic narrative : 


Tobtt—Judith, . . » « « «  « 4,95 
story: I. Maccabees, . 5. ~. « «© τος 95 

(b) In Egypt. 
i. The LXX., Νά LU tote en Meow ne ον αν, κα ΦΘΌΝΟΝ 


ii. The age of philosophizing. 
Aristobulus — Jewish Sibyl — Philo—The Thera- 
peute —Wisdom, . : rei ΠΝ - «+ 98-—101 


General characteristics of the period; positive and nega- 
tive, Soe RR ee vase ash, τε, tach 5 Mewar OL LUy 


Note. — Synopsis of Early Jewish Literature, BUG Guahson τ εὐ Ὁ. URL!) 


C BAP TAR. ha. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


THE BIBLICAL DocTRINE OF THE MESSIAH. 


In the patriarchal age—In the time of Moses; the Kingdom; 
the Captivity —The general forms which it assumed, . . 110-12 


CONTENTS. 


The Apocryphal books contain no mention of Messiah, but anticipate 
a national restoration, . Β 5 5 Ξ 2 


J. THE MESSIANIC DOCTRINE AS FURTHER DEVELOPED. 


1. In THE APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. 


(a) The Sibylline writings (Egypt), : . . ᾿ 

(Ὁ) The Book of Henoch (Palestine), - - Ξ Ξ : 
(c) The fourth Book of Esdras (Egypt), ° - Ξ 

(4) The Book of Jubilees (Palestine), . ὃ 


2. In THE EXEGETIC LITERATURE. 


(a) The LXX. (Egypt), . Ξ ὃ - a : > 


(Ὁ) The Targums (Palestine) — Onkelos; Jonathan— The 
later Targums on the Pentateuch; Hagiographa— 
The Psalms of Solomon, : ᾿ 5 . 5 


Il. THE MESSIANIC DOCTRINE AS DESCRIBED IN HIS- 
TORIC RECORDS OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 


1, Tae NEw TESTAMENT, : : 


2. CONTEMPORARY WRITERS. 


(a) Philo, 
(6) Josephus, . ° : Ε ὃ 4 
(c) Heathen writers, : 5 ὃ 6 : - 3 ὃ 


Ill. THE LATER MESSIANIC DOCTRINE OF THE JEWS. 


1. THE ΜΊΒΗΝΑ, 5 a 3 5 : g c A : . 
2. THE GEMARA, - 5 ὃ . 
8. LATER JEWISH Books, 5 2 


4. MysTIcAL Books, ; : 


XIX 
PAGE 


112—114 


114—117 
117—126 
126—182 


132—134 


134 


135—140 


140—147 


148, 149 
150, 151 


151, 152 


152 
158—155 
155, 156 


156—161 


xX CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

IV. THE DOCTRINE OF THE WORD. 
1. In PALESTINE: the Targums, . . . owt rent eae tl Glog oxs 
ΕῚΝ Ravers: PHILO, TT) τ. mss Abad Sous eit IOC les 
General result, . 4 : : = δ 3 : Ξ ὃ . 166—168 


Norte I.— Messianic prophecies inthe New Testament compared with 
the corresponding interpretations of Jewish commentators, 168—171 


Nore II. — The Christology of the Samaritans, . . . - . M18 


CECA PD ER Sli 


“THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


The first Christian teachers entertained no design of handing downa 
written record of the Gospel—Such a design would have been 
wholly foreign to their national feeling, for the ‘ literature” of Pal- 
estine was essentially traditionary, and the social position of the 
Apostles offered no advantages for the work —On the other hand, 
an oral Gospel was the natural result of their labors, : : . 174—1i7 


I. THE ORAL GOSPEL. 


1. PREACHING was itself a necessary preliminary to the historic 
Gospel, and the means by which it was formed, . . 111-119 


In this work all the Apostles joined; and it was regarded as 
the characteristic of the Christian dispensation and of the 


᾽ 


Apostolic mission, . : Ε Ε 3 5 ; : 5 179 


Thus ‘the Gospel” was the substance, and not the record, of 
the life of Christ—The Old Testament was the written 
word, . 5 ὃ : ὃ ei 1 c - Ξ - : 181 


CONTENTS. ΧΧῚ 


PAGE 
This feeling survived even to the close of the Second Cen- 
ΤΟΣ: - : δ 5 . 5 ϑ Ε Ξ . A : 181 
2. THE ORAL GOSPEL OF THE APOSTLES WAS ΗΙΒΤΟΒΕΙΟ. This 
appears from 
(a) The description given of the Apostolic office, 5 ° 182 
(Ὁ) The account of the Apostles’ preaching, 0 . 183, 184 
(c) The contents of their letters, . 5 5 5 6 . 185—191 
1. THE WRITTEN GOSPELS. 
1. DISTINCTLY CONNECTED WITH THE APOSTOLIC PREACHING. 
(a) St. Mark, . : ὁ ὃ Ξ Ξ : 3 -  « 191—193 
(Ὁ) St. Matthew, ᾿ 5 ᾿ . : - Ξ é . 194, 195 
(c) St. Luke, 5 Ξ τ ἃ : : " ὃ ὃ 5 195 
The evidence of St. Luke’s Preface, . δ 6 . 196—198 
2. THE INTERNAL CHARACTER OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS 
FAVORS THE BELIEF THAT THEY AROSE FROM A COMMON 
ORAL SOURCE. 
(a) The nature of the problem which they present, ς 198 
i. Their concordances threefold. 
a. In general plan. ὁ. In substance. 6. In lan- 
guage, - c‘ 5 4 ᾿ : : . 200—205 
9 ii. Their corresponding differences, ᾿ - ΣΟ 205 
(Ὁ) The solutions proposed. 
: is Mutualdependencess %) 20 se) 6 oo er > Ὁ 206 


ii. Common sources. 
a. Written. ὃ. Oral and written. c. Oral, - 207—212 
In relation to the form and substance of the 
Gospels: to their specific characters; to 
their language, < : : ᾿ : . 212—215 
Tradition not necessarily a source of myths, 215, 216 


XXII CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER LY. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


PAGE 
Times of calm belief unfavorable to the study of the Bible, 


: 217 
The characteristics of the Gospels brought out by modern controversy, 217 


I. THE INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER OF THE GOSPELS implied 


in the idea of inspired history; and even necessary in their first 
form, from 


1. Toe NATURE OF THE SUBJECT. Divine: Human, 5 . 218-222 


2. THE ELEMENTS CONTAINED IN THE APOSTOLIC TEACHING. 


a 


St. James, St. Paul, St. Peter, . 222—225 


3. THE ForMS OF THOUGHT CURRENT IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 


Jew; Past—Roman; Present — Hellenist; Future — Alex- 


andrine; Eternal relations—By which it was adapted 


to the wants of later times, . : ὃ < : . 225—229 


1. THE CANONICAL EVANGELISTS were fitted to preserve 
these original types of Christian faith, 


1. THoucH not CoNnsPIcuUOUS IN HISTORY OR TRADITION, . 229, 230 


St. Matthew — St. Mark (St. Peter)— St. Luke (St. Paul) — 
St. John, . 2380—243 


The general result of the position of the Evangelists, 243 


2. THE DISTINCTNESS OF THE GOSPELS ATTESTED BY 


(a) The practice of separate sects. 
Ebionites (St. Matthew) — [Doceta] (St. Mark) — 


Marcionites (St. Luke) — Valentinians (St. John,) 244—250 


CONTENTS. XXIIT 
PAGE 
(b) The judgment of the Church. 


The Evangelic symbols. Augustine, . - : . 250—252 
The consequences of the view, : - 6 4 . . 252, 258 


CHAP TE ky... V. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


The contrast between St. John and the Synoptists, ὁ 254 
CHARACTERISTICS OF ST. JOHN. 
I. THE GOSPEL IN ITSELF, A ent nike ae ears 255 
1. Irs SpecrAL History, ᾿ - - - ᾿ 5 Β ° 255 
(a) The life of St. John. 
Later legends — His typical character, : ᾿ . 257, 258 
(Ὁ) The authenticity of the Gospel, - 2 5 - Β 258 


Its late date— The testimony of the Apostolic Fa- 
thers; of the Fathers of the second century; of 
heretical writers — The skepticism of the Alogi, 259—263 


2. Irs SPECIAL CHARACTER, ὃ 3 - 5 . > 264 


(a) Language. 
i. Words. 
ii. Composition. 


a, General characteristics: Directness; Circumstan- 
tiality; Repetition; Individuality of narra- 


tive; Personality of action, . τ ὡς 2082p 
b. Combination of sentences: Particles; Key- 
words; Parallelism, , P 5 ‘ = . 272—275 
a 
— 


~ 


XXIV CONTENTS. 


(b) Plan. 


An Epic. 
The object of the Gospel. 
Its great divisions: 
i, The Manifestation of Christ. 
ii. The issue of the Manifestation, . 6 


(c) Substance, 


11. THE RELATION OF ST. JOHN TO THE SYNOPTISTS, 


1. Pornts OF DIFFERENCE, . 3 Ξ 3 A 
(a) As to locality and teaching, . C : ° 
(b) As to our Lord’s Person, 

2. POINTS OF COINCIDENCE, . δ . . 


(a) In fact, 
(8) In teaching, 


(c) In character. 
The Lord. St. Peter. St. John, 


The Relation of St. John’s Gospel to a new world, . 


ΘΟΕ Ρ IVa, 


PAGE 


275—281 


281—288 


284 


285 


286—291 
291 


291 


292—294 
294—296 


296—304 


304—3808 


THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL OF THE SYNOPTIC 


EVANGELISTS. 


The differences of the Synoptists as to 


I, Toe NaTivity, . 
11. Taz Baptism, AnD III. ΤΕΜΡΤΑΤΙΟΝ, 


IV. THE TRANSFIGURATION, 


310 
814—318 
818--821 


CONTENTS. XXV 


PAGE 
V. THE PASSION, . 5 6 : c ὃ : ο : . 821-826 
VI. THE RESURRECTION, Br dee 5 ot ἃ Δ aa -  » 821-988 
‘ 
Conclusions from these characteristic differences, . : Ὁ = . 8338—335 
Nore. — On the Day of the Crucifizion, . . +. + + «+ «| 835-842 


CHAPTER -V It. 


THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT OF THE 
SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 


Few traces of a chronological arrangement in the Gospels, . - + 849-47 


I. Tur GOSPEL oF ST. MATTHEW in its internal development, 347—360 
II. THe GOSPEL oF St. MARE, tt ee Coe τ 0 51 O. 


1177. Tur GosPet oF 51. LUKE, A é 5 : ἘΠ Ὸ » 9810--889 


General Summary, . » R Ξ : : : oe ae - . 884, 385 


CHAPTER °WEITe 0 
THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 


Difficulties arise from errors as to the character, the purpose, the his- 
torical authority of the Gospels, and from antecedent prejudices, . 3886—391 
They are useful intellectually, morally, and in connection with the 
whole scheme of Nature, ees PAT TE GE Ἐς “te = Ὁ eeO— 990 
3 


XXVI CONTENTS. 


APPENDICES. 


PAGE 


APPENDIX A. ON THE QUOTATIONS IN THE GOSPELS, ah pes . 899—402 


APPENDIX B. ON THE PRIMITIVE DocTRINE OF INSPIRATION, - 402—445 


§ 1. The Sub-Apostolic Fathers, 4083—407. § 2. The Apologists, 
407—411. § 3. The Church of Asia Minor, 412—416. § 4. 
The Roman Church, 416—419. § 5. The North African 
Church, 419—424. § 6. The Church of Alexandria, 424—440. 
§ 7. The Clementines, 440—445. 


APPENDIX C. ON THE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS OF THE LORD’S 


WoORDS AND WoRKS, age Oy ck RARE a alti ee ΚΜ ον Ὁ 445—453 
APPENDIX D. ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS, 5 . 454466 

The Gospel according to the Hebrews, 454—457. The Gospel of 

the Ebionites, 457—460. The Gospel of the Clementines, 460— 

462. The Gospel of Marcion, 462—466. 

APPENDIX E. A CLASSIFICATION OF THE MIRACLES OF THE GOS- 
PREG. ce Meet, Ou neue eae rere, 466—469 

APPENDIX F. A CLASSIFICATION OF THE PARABLES OF THE GOS- 
PELS, τος 469—471 
ADDITIONAL NOTES (AMERICAN EDITION), .  . . 5 . 472 
4738—476 


WISE MR Cea as ee ca RNS gt ee gees 


-.-».....--- 


Cle 


INTRODUCTION 


TO THE 


STUDY OF THE GOSPELS. 


INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 


INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND INTERPRETATION OF 
SCRIPTURE. 


Ἔοικεν 6 Thy Ἶριν Θαύμαντος ἔκγονον φήσας ov κακῶς γενεαλογεῖν. 
PLATO. 


Every one who has paid any attention to the history 
of the Church must have felt the want of a 
clear and comprehensive view of the mutual 
relations and influences of speculation and gait Se 
religion, as they have been gradually un- baie 
folded by reason and revelation. In The- 
ology and Philosophy we insensibly leave the positions 
of our Fathers, and rarely examine the origin and primary 
import of the doctrines which we have inherited or ab- 
jured. Words and formulas survive as silent witnesses or 
accusers, but we do not interrogate or heed them. Still 
it would be a noble and worthy task to determine the 
meeting-points and common advances of faith and science, 
and to discover how far each has been modified by the 
other, either in combination or in conflict. 
We might then follow the progress of man’s Or ae 
material and spiritual life, from the begin- 
ning to the end of the Bible, from the mysteries of the 
Creation and the Fall to the dark foreshadowing of the 
final consummation of the world in the last chapters of 


The importance 
of connecting the 


28 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


the Apocalypse. We might be able to mark the rise and 
growth of error, as well as its full and fatal development, 
and to learn under what guise of truth it gained accept- 
ance among men. We might see how far the expression 
of the doctrine of the Church was re-shaped to meet the 
requirements of successive ages, and how far the language 
of its formularies was suggested by the opinions of the 
times in which they were composed. 

Nor is this all: we.might find in philosophy not only 
the handmaid, but also the herald of revelation. We 

might trace in the writings of the heathen 
the essential need, world the tendency of man’s spontaneous 

impulses, and the limits of his innate pow- 
ers. We might compare the natural view of our destiny 
in Plato or Aristotle with its fulfilment in the Gospel. 
We might be taught by them to value the privileges of a 
divine law, and a definite covenant, when they tell us, in 
the language of doubt and dependence, that there is some- 
thing infinitely greater for which our mind still longs at 
the moment of its noblest triumphs; that the wants which 
modern skepticism would deny are real and enduring; 
that the doctrines which Natural Religion has assumed 
are not the proper heritage of thought; that the crowning 
mystery of the Incarnation is an idea as true to reason as 
it is welcome to the heart. 

Yet more, by such a view of the scheme of revelation 
we should be able to fix the source of the special objec- 
a gee tions which are brought against it, and to 
pects. of divine Cetermine their proper relation to the whole. 
ἐς Men are always inclined to exaggerate the 
importance of a conflict in which they are themselves 
engaged, and to judge of everything as it affects their own 
position. A general change in the religious character of 
an age often leads to the disregard of some element, or 
the abandonment of some outwork, which is really essen- 
tial to the perfection and integrity of revealed religion 


1 Cf. an eloquent article by Quinet in the Revue des dewx Mondes, 1888. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 29 


And if it be the first duty of an impartial student to esti- 
mate the exact force of his personal bias, that he may 
eliminate its influence before he determines a result, it 15 
no less important for those who would judge rightly of 
the absolute value of current opinions to consider how 
much they owe to the characteristics of the present age, 
before they are assigned to their proper place as fresh 
steps in the progressive development of human wisdom. 
During the last two centuries, to speak generally, there 
has been a steady advance from one extreme in philoso- 
phy to the other, — from naturalism to tran- ὦ Kare > 
scendentalism, — and the successive assaults of the course of mo- 
on Christianity have exhibited a correspond- Wy  ἐλόκη τ 
ing change. Religion and metaphysics are now contem- 
plated from within, and not from without: the world has 
been absorbed in man. In spite of partial reictions, the 
idea of the society, whether in the State or in the Church, 
has yielded to that of the individual; and whatever may 
be thought of the true precedence and relation of the 
two, it is evident that theology cannot have been unaf- 
fected by the new point of sight from which it is contem- 
plated. Those who press the claims of the individual to 
the utmost, find in Christianity itself a sys- Per pres 
tem of necessary truth, independent of any — of Christianity, ana 
Gospel histories, and unsupported by any aa 
true redemption. They abandon the “letter” to secure the 
“spirit,” and in exchange for the mysteries of our faith they 
offer us a law without types, a theocracy without prophe- 
cies, a Gospel without miracles, a cluster of definite wants 
with no reality to supply them; for the mythic and critical 
theories, as if in bitter irony, concede every craving which 
the Gospel satisfies, and only account for the wide spread 
of orthodox error by the intensity of man’s need. Chris- 
tian apologists have exhibited the influence of the same 
change. They have been naturally led to connect the 
teaching of revelation with the instincts of man, and to 
show that even the mysteries of fuith have some analogy 


Ox 
ὃ," 


30 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


with natural feeling or action. Meanwhile the power of 
Christianity, as embodied in a permanent society, — the 
depository and witness of the truth,—has grown less, 
and so it is now a common thing to depreciate the out- 
ward evidences of religion, which are not, however, essen- 
tially the less important because they appear inconclusive 
to some minds. Upon the widest view, history perhaps 
offers the fullest and most philosophical proof of the claims 
of Christianity; but however this may be, historical evi- 
dence necessarily demands attention even where it cannot 
convince; and as aforetime many who did not believe for 
Jesus’ words, believed for His very works’ sake, so still the 
external array of Christian evidences may kindle the true 
inner faith, and in turn reflect its glory. 
The doctrine of Holy Scripture is specially liable to the 
i Bos Ra influence of this transition from-an objective 
Benita as to a subjective philosophy. The Written 
W ord, by its manifold relations to the action 
of Providence, and the growth of Christian society, no less 
than by its combination of Divine and human elements, 
offers points of contact with every system, and furnishes 
infinite materials for speculation. A variety of questions 
arise at the outset of all intelligent study of the Bible which 
involve the solution of some of the most difficult prob- 
lems of mental or critical science, and which consequently 
receive answers in accordance with the existing forms of 
thought. In what sense, it may be asked, is a writing of 
Popa iis. man God’s message? How can we be rea- 
1 ὀπξρμσες ὃ sonably assured that the record is exact and 
complete? In what way are the ordinary 
rules of criticism affected by the subject matter to which 
they are applied? It is evidently impossible to discuss 
such questions at present in detail: probably they do not 
admit of any abstract discussion; but it may be allowable 
to suggest some general principles affecting the Inspira- 
tion, the Completeness, and the Interpretation of Holy 
Scripture which may serve to open an ‘approach to the 
study of it. 


— < 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 31 


When the first act of the Reformation was closed, and 
the great men had passed away whose pres- 
ence seemed to supply the strength which 
was found before in the recognition of the 
one living Body of Christ, their followers invested the 
Bible. as a whole with all the attributes of 

5 eR 5 ὃ The contrast be- 
mechanical infallibility which the Romanists — tween the Catvinis- 
had claimed for the Church. Pressed by the Ὁ 
necessities of their position, the disciples of Calvin were 
contented to maintain the direct and supernatural action 
of a guiding power on the very words of the inspired 
writer, without any regard to his personal or national posi- 
tion. Every part of Scripture was held to be not only 
pregnant with instruction, but with instruction of the same 
kind, and in the same sense. Nor could it be otherwise, 
while men considered the Divine agency of Inspiration as 
acting externally, and not internally, as acting om man, 
and not through man. The idea of a vital energy was 
thus lost in that of a passive state, and growth was reduced 
to existence; for what is highest in a purely spiritual 
world becomes lowest in the complex and limited life of 
man. The rude but sincere violence of fanaticism, and the 
rapid advance of physical science, did much to shake this 
arbitrary theory; and those who were captivated by the 
first vigorous achievements of historical criticism and men- 
tal analysis hastened to the other extreme. The Bible, 
they said, is merely the book of the legends 
of the Hebrews, which will yield to the skil- 7077 mewsarthe 
ful inquirer their residuum of truth, like those 
of the Greeks and Romans. Inspiration is but another 
name for that poetic faculty which embodies whatever is 
of typical and permanent import in things around, and 
invests with a lasting form the transitory growths of time. 

It is easy to state the fatal objections 
which a candid reader of Scripture must feel PR a 
to both these views; and ina general sense“ “““ 
it is not less easy to show how the partial forms of truth, 


I. The Inspiration 
of Scripture. 


32 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


in virtue of which they gained acceptance, may be harmo- 
niously combined. The purely organic theory of Inspira- 
tion rests on no Scriptural authority, and, if we except a 
few ambiguous metaphors, is supported by no historical 
testimony. It is at variance with the whole form and 
fashion of the Bible, and is destructive of all that is holiest 
in man and highest in religion, which seeks the coérdinate 
elevation of all our faculties, and not the destruction of 
any one of them. If we look exclusively at the objective 
side of inspiration, the prophet becomes a mere soulless 
machine, mechanically answering the force which moves 
it, the pen and not the penman of the Holy Spirit. He 
ceases to be a man while he is affected by the frenzy 
(μανία) of the heathen seers,’ and in a momentary influence 
gives up his whole spiritual growth. But, on 
the other hand, if we regard inspiration only 
: subjectively, we lose all sense of a fresh and 
living connection of the prophet with God. He remains 
indeed a man, but he is nothing more. He appears only 
to develop naturally a germ of truth which lies within 
him, and to draw no new supplies of grace and wisdom 
from without. There is no reiinion of the divine and 
human in his soul on which a Church may rest its faith. 
He may deduce, interpret, combine truth, but in the ab- 
sence of a creative power he is deficient in that which an 
instinct of our being declares to be the essential attribute 


subjective theories 
of Inspiration. 


1Cf. Plat. Phedr. 248 p. It will be of “ecstasy” in Scriptural records, ef. 


seen from his position in the scale that 
the prophet is regarded as one in 
whom all human powers are neutral- 
ized. Tim. 71 Ε, οὐδεὶς ἔννους ἐφάπ- 
τεται μαντικῆς evSéov καὶ ἀληδοῦς, 
ἀλλ᾽ ἢ καϑ᾽ ὕπνον... ἣ διὰ νόσον ἢ 
διά τινα ἐνδ)ουσιασμὸν παραλλάξας. 
This idea of an ‘‘ Ecstasy ” was applied 
to the Prophets by the Alexandrian 
Jews, and adopted by the Montanists, 
but rejected by the Catholic Church. 
Cf. App. A, § 2. As to the occurrence 


p- 12, n. 1. 

Plato’s idea of a possible inspiration 
is interesting; cf. Phed. 85 Ὁ; Phedr. 
244 a; 256 B; and in reference to ora- 
cles [Ion], 534 co; Tim. 71 pb. In the 
passage which I have taken as a motto 
(Thezet. 155 Ὁ), he has expressed admi- 
rably the true relation of wonder to 
wisdom, faith to philosophy. The anal- 
ogy is more striking when we call to 
mind the office of Iris—épw, εἴρω, 
Ἴρις, the messenger. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 33 


of the highest teacher... Such a theory removes all that is 
divine in our faith, and destroys the title-deeds of the 
Church’s inheritance. It is opposed to the universal tenor 
of Scripture and tradition, and leaves our wants unsatisfied 
and our doubts unanswered by God. Ifit be true, man is 
after all alone in the world, abandoned to the blind issues 
of fate or reason or circumstance. His teachers are merely 
his fellow-men, and their words claim his hearing only so far 
as they find a response in a heart already influenced by 
personal and social life. And who then shall answer him 
that their promises are more than echoes of his own cray- 
ings; and that the ready acceptance which their doctrine 
has found is anything but a natural expression of the wants 
and wishes of men ? 

Happily, however, we are not confined to the two ex- 
treme theories: the elements of truth on 
which they are respectively based are oppo- ον pee ee 
site indeed, but not contrary. If we com- "mem 
bine the outward and the inward — God and man — the 
moving power and the living instrument — we have a 
great and noble doctrine, to which our inmost nature bears 
its witness. We have a Bible competent to calm our 
doubts, and able to speak to our weakness. It then be- 
comes, not an utterance in strange tongues, but in the 
words of wisdom and knowledge. It is authoritative, for 
it is the voice of God; it is intelligible, for it is in the 
language of men. 

The possibility of such a combination seems to follow 
directly from a consideration of the nature 

P in respect to the 

and form of Inspiftation; and the same reflec- teacher and the 
tions which establish a necessary connection Το 
between inspired thoughts and inspired words, point out 
the natural transition from the notion of an inspired 


1 Ποιητής. Cf. Plat. Cony. 205 0. ἀπὸ δὲ πάσης τῆς ποιήσεως ἕν μόριον 
ἡ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος εἰς τὸ ὃν ἰόντι ἀφορισϑὲν .. .. τῷ τοῦ ὅλου ὀνόματι 
ὁτῳοῦν αἰτία πᾶσά ἐστι ποίησις. . .«. προσαγορεύεται. 


94 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


teacher to that of an inspired book, and justify the appli- 
cation of the epithet at once to the impulse and the result, 
an ambiguity which at first sight creates only confusion 
and embarrassment. 

Inspiration may be regarded in one aspect as the correl- 
ative of Revelation. Both operations imply 
a supernatural extension of the field of man’s 
spiritual vision, but in different ways. By 
Inspiration we conceive that his natural powers are quick- 
ened, so that he contemplates with a divine 
intuition the truth as it exists still among 
the ruins of the moral and physical worlds. 
By Revelation we see, as it were, the dark veil removed 
from the face of things, so that the true springs and issues 
of life stand disclosed in their eternal nature. 
This idea of Revelation which regards power 
and truth and beauty as veiled, and yet 
essentially existing beneath the suffering and sin and dis- 
order which are spread over the world within us and with- 
out,— over man and nature, — seems to be peculiarly 
Christian. Probably nothing but the belief in the Incar- 
nation could give reality and distinctness to the conception 
of a “restitution of all things;” and St. Paul describes the 
possibility of a clear vision and transforming reflection of 
the divine glory as the especial privilege of believers. 
The change wrought in philosophy by the vital recogni- 
tion of this idea penetrates to the very foundations of 
knowledge and hope. The “recollection” of Plato be- 
comes intuition, and we can now by faith reverse the 
words of Plotinus, who thanked God that “he was not 
tied to an immortal body.” ! 


1, The idea of 
Inspiration. 


The contrast be- 
tween Inspiration 
and Revelation. 


The idea of Rev- 
elation peculiarly 
Christian. 


/ 
1 The usage of the word ἀποκάλυψις 
5. ᾽ - na Ὕ 
and ἀποκαλύπτειν in the New Testa- 


curs only once in the Gospels, when 
Simeon describes our Lord as “a light 


ment is full of interest, as illustrating 
the Apostolic view of the objects of 
Revelation. The passages in which the 
words occur are the following: 
᾿Αποκάλυψις. i. The substantive oc- 


to dispel the darkness under which the 
heathen were veiled ” (Luke ii. 82, φῶς 
eis ἀποκ. ἐδνῶν). Elsewhere Chris- 
tianity itself, the very centre of all rey- 
elation, is described by St. Paul as “8 


~~ 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 


But while the idea of Revelation in its 


35 


fullest sense 


appears to be essentially Christian, every 


religion presupposes the reality of Inspira- 
tion, of a direct, intelligible communication 
of the Divine will to chosen messengers. The 


The belief in In- 
spiration universal ἢ 
and the difficulties 
which it involves 
common to all spir= 
ttual phenomena. 


belief in such a gift is in fact instinctive, 
and equally at least with the belief in a Supreme Being 


revelation of a mystery " (Rom. xvi. 25, 
amok. μυστ.); and so especially the 
great fact that the Gentiles should share 
equally with God’s ancient people in 
the New Covenant was made known 
“by revelation” (Eph. iii. 8, κατὰ 
arox.). ‘Through revelation of Jesus 
Christ” St. Paul received the Gospel 
which he preached (Gal. i. 12, δ dor. 
*J. X.). The visions of St. John were 
a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Apoc. 
1. 1). And even in details of action it 
was “ by revelation” that St. Paul went 
up the second time to Jerusalem (Gal. 
ii. 2, κατ᾽ ἄποκ.). 

ii. Revelation also serves to express 
that insight into divine truth which 
God gives to his servants, and which 
all Christians are encouraged and 
bound to seek (Eph. i. 17, δῴη ὑμῖν 
πνεῦμα σοφίας Kal ἀποκαλύψεως ἐν 
ἐπιγνώσει αὐτοῦ). Hence “ Reyela- 
tions”— peculiar manifestations of this 
general gift—are disclosed in the 
Christian assemblies (1 Cor. xiv. 6, 26); 
and St. Paul dwells particularly on the 
number of them which were granted 
to him (2 Cor. xii. 1, 7). 

iii. But as the eye of the Christian is 
naturally turned to the coming con- 
summation of the ages, ‘‘ the revelation 
of Jesus Christ”? in an especial sense is 
that second coming of the Lord, when 
all shall know Him (1 Pet. i. 7, 18, 
@mok. Ie X. 2 Thess. i. 7. 1 Cor. i. 7, 
ἡ ἀποκ. τοῦ Kup.). In this we look 
forward to ‘‘the revelation of His 
glory’? when the robe of sorrow shall 
at last be thrown aside (1 Pet. iv. 13); 
and God's righteous judgment of the 
world made known (Rom. ii. 5, ἀποκ. 
δικαιοκρισίας τοῦ Θεοῦ); and then the 


sons of God shall be reyealed in their 
full majesty, and creation shall rejoice 
in the sight (Rom. viii. 19, ἀποκ. τῶν 
vi@y τοῦ Θεοῦ.). 

᾿Αποκαλύπτειν. i. The yerb occurs 
more frequently than the substantive, 
but exactly in the same varieties of con- 
nection. By Revelation the” prophets 
in old time gained an understanding 
of the glad tidings which they pro- 
claimed (1 Pet. i. 12, οἷς ἀπεκαλ. 
Κι. τ. A.) By Revelation ‘the faith’ 
was made known (Gal. iii. 28), and its 
fulness declared ‘‘in the spirit to the 
holy apostles and prophets” (Eph. iii. 
5), in whom God was pleased to reveal 
His Son (Gal. i. 16, ἀποκ. ἐν ἐμοί). 

ii. Then, again, by Revelation the per- 
sonal knowledge of the truth is gained 
(Matt. xi. 25, 27. Luke x. 21, 22. Matt. 
xvi. 17); by Revelation God supplies 
what is yet defective in us (Phil. iii. 15), 
by special teaching (1 Cor. xiv. 30), or 
in general hope (1 Cor. ii. 10). 

iii. And while a continuous Revela- 
tion of God’s righteousness and wrath 
is still ever being made (Rom. i. 17, 18, 
ἀποκαλύπτεται), the Christian looks to 
that final manifestation of His infinite 
holiness, when the power of evil shall 
be at last ‘‘ revealed’ (2 Thess. ii. 3, 6, 
8) in due time, and also “tthe Son of 
Man” (Luke xvii. 80), before whom he 
shall perish. Then shall be fulfilled the 
purpose of Christ’s coming, when the 
thoughts of many hearts are unveiled 
(Luke ii. 85), as they were partially un- 
veiled during His earthly work: then 
everything secret shall be revealed 
(Matt. x. 26. Luke xii. 2); for “the 
day is revealed” in fire to try men’s 
works (1 Cor. iii. 13); then shall His 


36 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 
possesses the testimony of universal acceptance. Even 
intellectually the idea of Inspiration offers no extraordi- 
nary difficulties. To enlarge or inform any faculty is 
evidently a secondary operation of the same power by 
which it was first given and quickened. The intercourse 
between the Creator and the creature must, in common 
with all spiritual manifestations, remain a mystery; but 
that it does take place in some form or other is a matter 
of constant experience. And if we may venture to regard 
Inspiration merely as a mental phenomenon, it is not more 
remarkable that man’s spirit should be brought into direct 
connection with the Spirit of God, than that one mind 
should be able to exercise a sympathetic influence upon. 
another. That man is complex and finite introduces no 
difficulty which is not present in the ordinary processes of 
thought and life. And, on the contrary, this 
consideration fixes a limit to the extent of 
our inquiry; for all abstract analysis of In- 
spiration is impossible, since the Divine ele- 
ment is already in combination with the 
human when we are first able to observe its presence. 
Our inquiry is thus limited strictly to the character of 


It is impossible te 
contemplate the Di- 
vine and human 
apart ; hence we 
are limited to the 
examination ef 


servants enter into the glory which 1, 4. The first regards the individual 


even now is prepared for them (Rom. 
viii. 18. 1 Pet. v. 1; i. 5, σωτηρίαν 
ἑτοίμην ἀποκι). 

To neglect any one of these aspects 
of Revelation, which sets forth its fun- 
damental, continuous, and final opera- 
tion, is to mutilate the completeness of 
the Divine truth. The great work of 
Revelation, se to speak, yet remains. 

The words do not occur in St. Mark, 
St. James, St. Jude, nor in the writings 
of St. John, except Apoc. i. 1, and 
John xii. 88 (from LXX.) And con- 
versely pavepow occurs very frequently 
in St. John, and also in St. Mark, but 
does not occur in St. Matt. or St. Luke. 
On the connection of γνωρίζω, ave- 
pow, ἀποκαλύπτω, cf. Eph. iii. 3—5. 
Rom. xvi. 26; i. 17; iii, 21. 1 Pet. v. 


knowledge, the second the outward 
manifestation, the third the essential 
permanence, of that which is set forth. 
In the LXX. the metaphor of ἀποκα- 
λύπτειν is clearly brought out in its 
personal form in the phrases ἀποκ. τοὺς 
6opSadmovs (Num. xxii. 81), and ἀποις. 
τὸ οὖς (Ruth iv. 4). ᾿Αποκάλυψις first 
occurs in Sirac. xi. 27, but Jerome re- 
marked (Comm. ad Galat. i. 12; Lib, 
i. p. 387) that the word ‘‘ was used by 
none of the wise of the world among 
the Greeks.”? It is found in Plutarch. 
Cf. Plat. Gorg. 460 A, ete. (ἀποκα- 
λύπτω). In like manner the Latin 
Christians, beginning with Tertullian, 
seem to have been the first, if not the 
only writers, who employed revelatio 
and the cognate words metaphorically. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 37 


Inspiration. The real existence of such an influence is 
proved at once by common belief and personal experi- 
ence. The nature of its operation tran- 

3 2. The form of 
scends the power of our thought; but it  mspired teaching, 
remains to examine the form which this Di- “"““" μά 
vine teaching bears when presented to men. And here 
a characteristic difference may be observed. In heathen 
nations the Sibyl or the Pythoness was the type of an in- 
spired teacher; and Plato consequently places the prophet 
low in the scale of men, as one in whom all human powers 
of body and soul were neutralized.!| The dream, the 
vision, the ecstasy, seemed to be the only means whereby 
the Deity could come into contact with man, and thus all 
personal consciousness was destroyed by the supernatural 
influence. In the records of the Bible, on 
the other hand, the teaching of Inspiration 
appears as one great element in the education of the world, 
and therefore it has an essential connection with the age 
and people to whom it is addressed, while its form varies 
according to the needs of men. 

Like every gift of God, inspiration is bestowed for some 
special end to which it is exactly propor- 
tioned. At one time we may picture to ρον, 
ourselves the Lawgiver recording ther letien: ΟῚ τ Δεν τας, 
of the Divine Law which he had received 
directly from God, “inscribed upon tables of stone,” or 
spoken “face to face.” At another we may watch the 
sacred Historian, unconsciously it may be and yet freely, 
seizing on those facts in the history of the past which were 
the turning-points of a nation’s spiritual progress, gather- 
ing the details which combine to give the truest picture of 
each crisis, and grouping all according to the laws of a 
marvellous symmetry, which in after-times might symbol- 
ize their hidden meaning. Or we may see the Prophet 
gazing intently on the great struggle going on around him, 


Biblical records. 


WOE ν. 82, nels 
4 


38 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


discerning the spirits of men, and the springs of national 
life, till the relations of time no longer exist in his vision, 
till all strife is referred to the final conflict of good and 
evil, foreshadowed in the great judgments of the world, 
and all hope is centred in the coming of the Saviour, and 
in the certainty of His future triumph. Another, perhaps, 
looks within his own heart, and as a new light is poured 
over its inmost depths, his devotion finds expression in 
songs of personal penitence and thanksgiving; in confes- 
sions of sin and declarations of righteousness, which go 
far to reconcile the mysterious contradictions of our nature. 
To another is given the task of building up the Church. 
By divine instinct he sees in scattered congregations types 
of the great forms of society in coming ages, and addresses 
to them not systems of doctrine, but doctrine embodied 
in deed, which applies to all time, because it expresses 
eternal truths, and yet specially to each time, because it 
is connected with the realities of daily life. 

But however various the forms of inspired teaching may 
be, in one respect they are all similar. In 
every case the same twofold character is pre- 
served which arises from the combination 
of the divine influence with the human utterance. The 
language of the Lawgiver, the Historian, the Prophet, the 
Psalmist, the Apostle, is characteristic of the positions 
which they severally occupied. Even when they speak 
most emphatically “the words of the Lord,” they speak 
still as men living among men; and the eternal truths 
which they declare receive the coloring of the minds 
through which they pass. Nor can it be said that it is 
easy to eliminate the variable quantity in each case; for 
the distinguishing peculiarities of the several writers are 
not confined to marked features, but extend also to a mul- 
titude of subtle differences which are only felt after careful 
study. Everywhere there are traces of a personality, 
not destroyed, but even quickened by the action of the 
divine power, — of an individual consciousness, not sus- 


a twofold charac- 
ter, since 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 39 
pended, but employed at every stage of the heavenly 
commission." 
Inspiration, then, according to its manifestation in Scrip- 
ture, is Dynamical, and not Mechanical, — 
the human powers of the divine messenger 
act according to their natural laws even 
when these powers are supernaturally strengthened. Man 
is not converted into a mere machine, even in the hand 
of God. But it may be asked whether this combination 
of letter and spirit be perfect or partial; whether the 
special human form be essential to the right apprehension 
of the divine idea; whether the shell be absolutely needed 
to preserve the kernel; or, whether the impress of per- 
sonal character must be effaced before we can see the 
godlike image, and the outward covering be removed in 
order that the inner germ may grow and fructify.° 

It might, perhaps, be a sufficient answer to such inquiries 
to point out the absolute impossibility of 
separating the two elements, the external 
and the internal, the historical and the doc- 
trinal, the objective and the subjective, however we choose 
to name them. But the truth of this general statement 
becomes more clearly apparent if regard be had to the 


the personality of 
the teacher is pre- 
served. 


This personality 
an essential part of 
the conception, 


1 The cases of spiritual ecstasy men- 
tioned in Scripture are obviously ex- 
ceptional and distinct from prophetic 
inspiration. Thesecond rapture of Saul 
is easily intelligible from the cireum- 
stances of the narrative; and on the 
former occasion it is expressly men- 
tioned that God gave him another heart 
before he prophesied (1 Sam. x. 6, 
9—16). When St. Paul was carried up 
to Paradise, the words which he heard 
were not for the instruction of the 
Chureh, but wrspeakable words, which 
it is not lawful (€&6v) for a man to utter 
(2 Cor. xii. 4), The outpouring of 
‘‘tongues” was addressed to God, and 
not to man (1 Cor. xiv. 2). 

On the other hand, the personal char- 


acters of Balaam and Caiaphas remain 
unchanged when they utter unwil- 
lingly or unconsciously Divine truths. 


2The word is open to many objec- 
tions on other grounds, and not least 
from its technical application; but I 
can think of no better one which may 
be conveniently used to describe an 
influence acting upon living powers, 
and manifesting itself through them 
according to their natural laws, as dis- 
tinguished from that influence which 
merely uses human organs for its out- 
ward expression, as, for instance, in 
the accounts of the Demoniacs. 


3 Cf. Tholuck, Glaubwird. der Evang. 
Gesch. s. 429 ff. 


40 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


conception, the expression, and the communication of 
thought. The slightest consideration will show that 
words are as essential to intellectual processes as they 
are to mutual intercourse. For man the purely spiritual 
and absolute is but an aspiration or a dream. Thoughts 
are wedded to words as necessarily as soul to body. 
Language is a condition of our being, determining the 
conception as well as the communication of ideas, as 
in the first record of our race we read that Adam, while 
still in solitude, gave names to all the creatures which 
passed before him.’ Without it the mysteries unveiled 
before the eyes of the seer would be confused shadows; 
with it they are made clear lessons for human life. 

But, even if it were possible for the prophet to realize 
truth otherwise than according to the capac- 
ity of his finite mind, still something would 
be wanting. It is not enough that the sacred teacher 
should gaze upon the eternal truths of religion, like the 
disembodied spirits in the Platonic Pheedrus,’ he must be 
able to represent them fitly to other men. And when ad- 
dressed to man, the human element becomes part of the 
message from heaven; for the divine can be grasped by 
him only when defined and moulded according to the laws 

of his own nature. The book is thus rightly 
the reeord af te said to be inspired no less than the prophet. 

The book reflects and perpetuates the per- 
sonal characteristics of the prophet, but it does not create 
them. Writing introduces no limitation into the repre- 
sentation of truth which does not already exist in the first 
conception and expression of it. The isolated writing 
bears the same rélation to the whole work of the prophet 
as the prophet himself to the world from which he is 
chosen. The partial and incomplete record preserves the 
clear outline of such features in his character and mission as 
were of importance for the guidance of the future Church. 


the expression, and 


1 Cf. Donaldson’s New Cratylus, Ὁ. 62. 2 Phedr. 247 Ὁ; 249 c. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 41 


On following out the lines of thought thus lightly 
sketched, it will appear, I think, that, from forsee 
a Christian point of view, the notion of a of Scripture is ple- 

. . . : . nary, and yet 

perfect Dynamical Inspiration is alone sim- 

ple, sufficient, and natural. It presupposes that the same 
providential Power which gave the message selected 
the messenger; and implies that the traits of individual 
character, and the peculiarities of manner and purpose, 
which are displayed in the composition and language of 
the sacred writings, are essential to the perfect exhibition 
of their meaning. It combines harmoniously the two 
terms in that relation of the finite to the infinite which 
is involved in the very idea of revelation. It preserves 
. absolute truthfulness with perfect humanity, so that the 
nature of man is not neutralized, if we may thus speak, by 
the divine agency, and the truth of God is not impaired, 
but exactly expressed in one of its several aspects by the 
individual mind. Each element performs its perfect work; 
and in religion, as well as in philosophy, a glorious reality 
is based upon a true antithesis. The letter becomes as 
perfect as the spirit; and it may well seem that the image 
of the Incarnation is reflected in the Christian Scriptures, 
which, as I believe, exhibit the human and divine in the 
highest form, and in the most perfect union. 

For when it is said that the Scriptures are everywhere 
quickened by a principle of spiritual life, it 
is already implied that they exhibit an out- 
ward development. The Divine teaching, 
though one, is not uniform. Truth is indeed immutable, 
but humanity is progressive; and thus the form in which 
truth is presented must be examined in relation to the age 
in which the revelation was made. At one time it is to be 
sought in the simple relations of the patriarchal household ; 
at another, in the more complicated interests of national 
existence; at another, in the still deeper mysteries of indi- 
vidual life : at another, in the infinite fulness of the Sa- 
viour’s ae or in the perplexing difficulties which beset 


adapted to a pro- 
gressive humanity, 


_ Christian life. 


42 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


the infant Churches. But each form has its proper and 
enduring lesson: each record constitutes a link in the 
golden chain which, to use the Homeric allegory, has again 
bound the earth with all its varied interests to the throne 
of God. 

The personal consequences which flow from this view 
yo eae of the Inspiration of Scripture are too im- 
Inspired writings to portant not to find a passing notice here. 
Truth is brought into a connection with life 
by the recognition of the human element in its expression 
which it could not otherwise have. The several parts of 
the Bible are thus united, not only by the presence of a 
common object, but also by the impress of a common 
nature. The history of Christ Jesus is concrete doctrine, 
as doctrine is abstract history. The Christian finds in the 
records of the Lord’s life a perfect pattern for his own 
guidance, as well as the realization of the Apostolic teach- 
ing. However wonderful each action of the Saviour may 
be as a manifestation of power, providence, and love, he 
seeks yet further for its personal relation to himself; for 
he knows that the Evangelists, men even as he is, felt 
truly the inner meaning of the events which they record, 
and truly told their outward details. All the holy writings, 
as we read, have but one end, that we may be thoroughly 
Surnished to all good works, and this is obtained by their 
entire adaptation to our complex nature. Nor will any 
one who is conversant with the history of ancient systems 
be inclined to think lightly of the use thus made of the 
simplest instincts and powers of humanity in the revela- 
tion of the highest mysteries. The fundamental error of 
the most pious ef the ancient philosophers lay in their 
misapprehension of the relation of the finite to the in- 
finite. They sought a system of absolute truth, indepen- 
dent of the specific laws of human life, and vainly labored 
to raise men out of the world. They had no gospel for 
the simple and poor, for the mechanic and the slave. In 
the pursuit of wisdom they disparaged common duties, 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 43 


and deferred the business of social life and of explanation 
of the popular faith till they should have solved the riddle 
of selfknowledge.t. They cherished and set forward one 
part of man’s nature to the destruction of the others. The 
end of philosophy was declared to be the isolation of the 
soul: the work of life only the contemplation of death. 
Christ, on the contrary, finally uniting in one person God 
and man, fixed the idea of spiritual life in the harmonious 
combination of faith and works, and left His disciples in 
the world, though not of it. The tree which symbolizes 
the Christian faith springs from earth and is a resting- 
place for the birds of heaven ;? the leaven spreads through 
the whole ὅ man; for humanity is not removed by the gos- 
pel doctrine, but clothed with a spiritual dress.‘ 

The various proofs which may be adduced in support 
of the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of 
Holy Scripture, according to the sense in 
which it has been already explained, are va- 
rious in kind, and will necessarily appear more or less 
forcible at different times and to different minds. On the 
one hand, assuming that the writings of the 
New Testament are, in part at least, the 
works of men whose Divine commission was 
attested by sensible miracles, we may appeal 
to the fact that they claim to speak in the name and by 
the authority of Him by whom their mighty works were 
wrought.2 Or we may collect the passages which the 


4. The proofs of 
the Inspiration of 
writings. 


(a) External. 

i. The supernat- 
ural commission of 
the Apostles. 


1 Cf. Plat. Gorg. 527D; Phzdr. 229 Ἑ. ii.. The Acts. Ch. viii. 26,29; x. 19; 


2 Orig. Tom. x11. in Matt. § 5. Οὐδὲν 
μὲν τῶν ἀπτέρων, τὰ δὲ ἐπτερωμένα 
πνευματικῶς. 

8 Cf. Trench, Notes on the Parables, 
p- 115. Olsh. in J. 

4 Cf. Plat. Phed. 64 A; 67D. 

5 The reality of an objective Inspira- 
tion of the Apostles is clearly assumed 
in the New Testament. 

i. The Gospels. Matt. xvi. 17; x. 19, 
20; Mark xiii. 11; John xiv. 26; xvi. 
12—15. 


xi. 12, 28; xiii. 2; xv. 28; xvi. 6,7; xxi. 
1a 

iii. The Catholic Epistles. 1 Pet.i. 
10—12; 2 Pet. i. 19—21; 1 John ii. 20. 
‘iy. The Pauline Epistles. 1 Thess. 
iv. 2(2 Thess. iii. 6); 1 Cor. ii. 10; xiv. 
87 (2 Cor. iii. 18); Gal. i. 11, 12; Rom. 
Vili. 16; xvi. 26; Eph. iii. 3—6; 1 Tim. 
iy. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 

The same doctrine is implied in the 
Pauline phrase κατ᾽ ἐπιταγήν, Rom. 
Xvi. 26; 1 Cor. vii. 6 (25); 2 Cor. viii. 8; 


44 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


apostolic writers have quoted from the Old Testament, and 
comparing the spiritual lessons which they 
draw from them with the simplest mean- 
ing of the text, form some general conclu- 
sions as to the sense in which they regarded 
the words of the prophets, as indeed the Word of God. 
Or, descending still lower, we may show that 
the Christian Fathers with one consent af- 
firmed in the most complete manner the 
inspiration of the Scriptures, placing the writings of the 
New Testament on the same footing with those of the 
Old, as soon as it was possible that the apostolic records 
could rise with clear preéminence above the oral tradition 
of the apostolic teaching.2. On the other hand, we may 
examine the character and objects of the 
books themselves, and put together the vari- 
ous facts which appear to indicate in them the presence 
of more than human authority and wisdom, no less in the 
simplicity and apparent rudeness of their general form 
than in the subtle harmony and marvellous connection of 


vi. The analogy 
of the apostolic use 
of the Old Testa- 
ment, 


tii. The testimony 
of the Church. 


(Ὁ) Internal. 


their various elements. 


1Tim.i.1; Tit. i. 3. And on the other 
hand the corresponding change in the 
believer—‘‘the revelation of eye and 
ear? —is vividly set forth; 2 Cor. iii. 
18; Col. iii.10. This change extends to 
each element of man’s complex nature. 
His spirit (πνεῦμα) is aided by the 
Spirit of God that it may know the 
blessings of the Gospel (1 Cor. ii. 12). 
“His reason (vovs) is furnished with 
new intuitional principles by which to 
test the Divine counsels (Rom. xii. 2, 
ἀνακαίνωσις τοῦ vods).. His under- 
standing (διάνοια, Eph. iv. 18) is en- 
lightened so as to recognize the True 
One (1 John y. 20. Cf. Eph. i. 18, 
πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὑφϑαλμοὺς τῆς 
καρδίας, al. Otavoias). And according 
to the measure of this change Inspira- 
tion is a blessing of all ages and all 
Christians. 

The distinction of τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦ Θεοῦ 


And if this method of proof is 


and ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ, which are both 
rendered the Word of God in the Eng- 
lish version, and Verbum Det in the 
Vulgate, is important in relation to the 
doctrine of the Inspiration of Scripture. 
The former phrase occurs: Matt. iv. 4 
(= Deut. viii. 8); Luke (ii. 29); iii. 2; 
John iii. 84; viii. 47; Rom. x. 17; Eph. 
vi. 17; Heb. vi. 5; xi. 3; 1 Pet. i. 25 (= Is. 
x1.8). The latter is more frequent: Mark 
vii. 13; Luke ν. 1, ete.; John x. 35, etc.; 
Acts iv. 81, οἷο. ; Rom. ix. 6; Col. i. 25; 
Heb. iv. 12, etc.; 1 Pet. i. 23, etc. The 
distinction is lost also in the Syriac and 
Gothic Versions. In Eph. vi. 17, Ter- 
tullian (i. p. 152) strangely reads Sermo 
Dei. 

1 Cf. App. A. On the Quotations in 
the Gospels. 


2 Cf. App. B. On the Primitive Doc- 
trine of Inspiration. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 45 


less direct and definite than the other; if it calls for calm 
patience and compels thought in each inquirer; it is also 
broader and more elastic, capable of infinite extensions 
and applications. Nor is it less powerful even while it is 
cogent. ΤῸ many, perhaps, the inward assurance which it 
creates is more satisfactory than the rigid deductions of 
direct argument. The unlimited multiplication of con- 
vergent presumptions and analogies builds up a strong 
and sure conviction possessing a moral force which can 
never belong to a mere formal proof, even where the 
premises are necessary truths. 

To speak of the proof of the Inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures involves, indeed, an unworthy limitation 
of the idea itself. In the fullest sense of the  proofetapiration 
word we cannot prove the presence of. life, eae 
but are simply conscious of it; and Inspiration is the man- 
ifestation of a higher life. The words of Scripture are 
spiritual words, and as such are spiritually discerned.’ The 
ultimate test of the reality of Inspiration lies in the intu- 
ition of that personal faculty (πνεῦμα) by which inspired 
men once recorded the words of God, and are still able to 
hold communion with Him. Everything short ‘of this 
leaves the great truth still without us; and that which 
should be a source of life is in danger of becoming a mere 
dogma. At the same time, it is as unfair and dangerous 
to reject the teaching of a formal proof as it is to rely upon 
it exclusively. It cannot be an indifferent matter to us to 
bring into harmonious combination the work and the writ- 
ings of the Apostles; to follow and faithfully continue the 
clear outlines of scriptural criticism as traced in the writ- 
ings of the New Testament; to recognize the power which 
the Bible has hitherto exercised upon the heart of the 
Church, and the depths which others have found in it. 
Such investigations will necessarily lead to other and more 
personal questions. We shall ask naturally whether we 
have any clear conception of the position which the first 


11 Cor. vii. 12—16. 


46 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


Christian teachers occupied, and the results which they 
accomplished ? Whether we have ever fairly estimated 
the extent to which the different Books of Scripture are 
penetrated by a common spirit? Whether the fault be 
not in ourselves, if occasional difficulties are allowed to 
destroy the effect of those divine words which have been 
for ages a spring of life? And thus a new field will be 
opened before us; and in this case ever-deepening convic- 
tion is the result and the reward of labor. For there is 
this essential difference between an outward and an inward 
—a logical and a moral — proof, that while the one can 
be handed down from one generation to another, in all its 
formal completeness, gaining no fresh force and admitting 
of no wider application, the latter only exercises its full 
influence by the personal appreciation of each element of 
which it consists, and adapts itself to every shifting phase 
of thought from which it draws its strength. 
To examine at length the details which suggest this 
internal proof of inspiration is at once use- 
ale mon Jess and impossible. Their effect lies in the 
reine ἀρήμοδα individual point of sight from which they are 
regarded, and their weight in their infinite 
variety. But one or two remarks on the Gospels may serve 
to illustrate different lines of thought which will furnish 
abundant materials for private study; and it is by this only 
that their real value can be estimated. 
In the first place, the negative character of the Gospels, 
the absence of certain features which we 
ae me, τς should have expected to find in them, is too 
Gospels. striking not to arrest attention. They are 
Deans: una fragmentary in form. Their writers make no 
attempt to relate all the actions or discourses 
of our Lord, and show no wish to select the most marvel- 
lous series of his mighty works; and probably no impartial 
judge will find in any one of them a conscious attempt to 
form a narrative supplementary to those of the others. 
But if we know by the ordinary laws of criticism that our 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 47 


Gospels are the only authentic records of the Saviour’s life, 
while we believe that Providence regards the well-being 
of the Christian Church, are we not necessarily led to 
conclude that some divine power overruled their composi- 
tion, so that what must otherwise seem a meagre and in- 
complete record should contain all that is fittest histori- 
cally to aid our progress and determine our faith? Nor 
can it be unworthy of notice that while the αν oo iain nearly 
Gospels evidently contain so small a selection — «ll that we know of 
5 the life of Christ. 

from the works and words of Christ, so few 

details unrecorded by the Evangelists should have been 
preserved in other ways. The interval between the Gos- 
pel of St. John and the Synoptists indicates the existence 
of many intermediate forms of doctrine of which tradition 
has preserved no trace. The numerous witnesses of our 
Lord’s works and teaching must have treasured up with 
affection each recollection of their past intercourse ; but 
the cycle of the Evangelic narrative is clearly marked ; and 
it cannot but seem that the same Power which so definitely 
circumscribed its limits determined its contents." 

Again, the Gospels are unchronological in order. We 
are at once cautioned against regarding them 
as mere history, and encouraged to look for 
some new law of arrangement in their con- 
tents, which, as I shall endeavor to prove, must result from 
a higher power than an unaided instinct or an enlightened 
consciousness. 

Once more, the Gospels are brief and apparently con- 
fused in style. There is no trace in them of 
the anxious care or ostentatious zeal which %,f7crsmplcly 
mark the ordinary productions of curiosity 
or devotion. The Evangelists write as men who see 
through all time, and only contemplate the events which 
they record in their spiritual relations. But, at the same 
time, there is an originality and vigor in every part of the 


b. Their deficiency 
in chronology. 


ΤΟΥ App. C. On the Apocryphal Traditions of the Lord's Words and Works. 


48 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


Gospels which become a divine energy in the Gospel of 
St. John. As mere compositions they stand out from all 
other histories with the noble impress of simplicity and 
power; and it is as if the faithful reflection of the Image 
of God shed a clear light on the whole narrative. The an- 
swer was once given to the Pharisees when they sought to 
take Jesus, that never man spake like that 
man, and those who assail the authority of 
the Gospels have been constrained to confess that never 
was history written as in them.! 
If we regard the subject of the Gospels it would indeed 
be strange if this were not so. The New 
neon * Testament does not contain a mere record 
of ordinary facts, or a collection of indiffer- 
ent conclusions, but lays the historic groundwork of man’s 
redemption, and builds up his practical faith. In narrative, 
in doctrine, and in prophecy, the same great truths are 
brought forth under different relations of time. And thus 
the connection of events, the arrangement of arguments, 
and the choice of symbols, may serve to exhibit in clearer 
and more varied outline the whole structure of Christianity. 
For nothing can be immaterial which is able to influence 
our idea of the Saviour’s life, or to alter the application 
of Christ’s teaching. The history must be not only true 
to the outward form, but true to the inward spirit; the 
proof must be not only convincing, but effectual; the pre- 
diction must not only answer to the event, but cohere with 
the whole scope of prophetic revelation. It may, indeed, 
be easy to quote passages in which we do not see the im- 
portance of the minuter details of the Scriptures; for we 
cannot know the secret experience of all Christians; but 
it would be equally easy to prove that there is no singu- 
larity in expression or detail, no trait of personal feeling 
or individual conception, in the Gospels, which does not in 
some one place greatly affect our notion of Christ’s teach- 
ing. And thus, unless the peculiarities of each writer were 


John7: 46. 


1 Cf. Gaussen, Theopneustia, pp. 298 ff. (Eng. Tr.) 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 49 


chosen to exhibit a special aspect of truth, they must in 
some degree distort it. 

But though we shall dwell frequently in the course of 
the following pages on the characteristic dif- rate ae 
ferences of the Evangelists, we must not for- teaching of the Gos- 
get that, while they work separately for the ἢ 
instruction of individuals, they have a common service to 
perform in the edification of the Church. Their writings 
must be combined as well as analyzed, and we must care- 
fully construct the general doctrines which they teach us 
by a comparison of scattered passages. All true sense of 
the absolute unity of the Diatessaron, as distinguished 
from its unity of form, is commonly lost by separating mir- 
acles, prophecies, and parables, instead of combining them. 
We regard them, as a child might regard the stars, as 
chance sparks of heavenly light, because we have not ob- 
served the law which rules their order. Yet it is in the 
perfection and oneness of their social teaching, so to speak, 
that the strongest internal proof of the plenary inspiration 
of the Gospels is to be found. The office of the apostles 
was not only personal, but public. They had not merely 
to appropriate subjectively the truths of salvation, but to 
set them forth for the instruction of the whole Christian 
Society. Their inspiration is to the Church what enlight- 
enment is to the believer. For as we hold that there are 
rights which belong to the state rather than to the citizen, 
so there are doctrines which pertain to the whole body of 
the faithful rather than to its several members. Such doc- 
trines are the great mysteries of nature — foreknowledge 
and providence — which find their proper 
centre in the social, and not in the personal 
existence. But, nevertheless, their truest res- 
olutions must be sought in the life of Him, by whom the 
whole world was reiinited to God. We must consider how 
far each miracle and prophecy helps us to complete our 
idea of the power and foresight of God, in reference to the 
wants and works of man; and how far each parable sug- 

5 


The application 
of this teaching. 


50 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


gests the glorious truth of the inner harmony of the uni- 
verse. The manner in which these questions — the foun- 
dation-doctrines of a Christian community — are treated 
by the Evangelists is such as to exclude the idea of a mere 
personal intuition, for that leaves no room for those com- 
binations in which the fulness of the Gospel lies. How- 
ever far one Evangelist might have been led by the laws 
of his own mind, it requires the introduction of a higher 
power that four should unconsciously combine to rear 
from different sides a harmonious and perfect fabric of 
Christian truth. 

1. In order to understand the full force of miracles we 
must bear in mind their double aspect — out- 
ward as well as inward — as works of power 
and works of redemption. The former view, which was 
almost exclusively studied in the last two centuries, is now 
well-nigh forgotten,! through that spirit of our own times, 
to which we have already alluded; but still the miracles 
are as important to the Christian faith providentially as 
morally. And as their redemptive significance is deep and 
varied, so is their outward manifestation perfect in extent 
and glory. It has been well observed that there is nothing 
in them contrary to nature, while all is above nature ; that 
the laws of existences around us are not broken, but resolved 
into higher laws; that there is no creation out of nothing, 
but a freeing of the primitive order (κόσμος, mundus’) from 
the lets and limitations of sin. Again, it is equally true, 
though less observed, that they penetrate into every class 


a. Miracles. 


1 Pascal rises far beyond his own age 
when he says, “ Les figures de l’Evan- 
gile pour l’état de l’ame malade sont des 
corps malades.” (Pensées, ii. 872, Fau- 
geére). 

2 The word κόσμος in this sense was 
first used by Pythagoras (Plut. de Plac. 
Phil. 11. 1). Iwndus occurs in Ennius 
(cwli mundus), and yet Cicero evidently 
speaks of the word as strange and un- 
usual even in his time (de Uniy. x. 


lucens mundus). It will not fail to strike 
the attention, that while the Greeks and 
Romans regarded the outward beauty 
and order of creation as giving the tru- 
est name to the world, the Hebraizing 
Greek and Rabbinical writers should 
have regarded ‘the ages” (αἰῶνες, 
rend 5) as the right denomination of 
that where interest centres rather in the 
moral than in the physical order, 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 51 


of being with which we are connected — material, animal, 
and spiritual; that they now involve and again exclude 
natural means; that they alike give life and destroy it ; 
that they rise above the laws of matter and change its ac- 
cidents. The constancy and harmony of nature have been 
converted into an argument against an almighty Provi- 
dence ;' and in miracles we find the proper vindication of 
the perpetuity and extent of the Creator’s power. They 
prove His presence in all things against those philosophers 
who, from the time of Epicurus,? confound the law and him 
who works according to the law ; and, by a strange confu- 
sion, substitute, as it were, a theory of motion for a living 
force. There is, as I trust to show, at once a perfect dis- 
tinctness in the practical and doctrinal import of each 
miracle, and a perfect unity in their final aim; so that 
the completeness of their cycle and the variety of their 
applications suggest to us the influence of a higher power 
on the Evangelists than a mere “intuitional conscious- 
ness.” ὃ 

2. While the miracles show that a sustaining power is 
everywhere present in nature, the parables 
reveul no less clearly the divine harmonies 
by which it is penetrated. For parables are more than 
arbitrary similitudes. In part they explain those higher 
relations of our existence to which the common events of 
life should lead us, and realize in religion the Socratic ex- 
ample. They connect the principles of action with the 


b. Parables. 


1 Cf. Galen. de usu Part. x1. 14 (quo- 2 Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 25. Epicurus 


ted by Pearson, On the Creed, p. 540 n). 
The following passage of Goethe (Tho- 
luck, Glaubwiird, 5. xiv.) expresses 
plainly the assumption which lies at the 
basis of much criticism at present: Du 
hiltst das Evangelium, wie es steht, fiir 
die géttlichste Wahrheit; mich wiirde 
eine yernehmliche Stimme yom Him- 
mel nicht iberzeugen, dass das Wasser 
brennt .. . Vielmehr halt’ ich dies fir 
eine Listerung gegen den grossen Gott 
und seine Offenbarung in der Natur. 


ait... atomum, quum pondere et grav- 
itate directo deorsum feratur, declinare 
paullulum. It is remarkable that a 
change of motion did not supply the 
idea of some external power. ‘ Attrac- 
tion’ is but a name to describe the ac- 
tion of force, and assumes the existence 
of that of which it cannot explain the 
origin. 


8 Cf. Rogers, Reason and Faith, Ed. 
Rey. Oct. 1849, pp. 344-6. 


52 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


principles of faith, and appeal to the heart of man as a 
witness of his true duties to God and his fellow. In part, 
they connect the natural with the spiritual world, and 
show how the laws of natural progress correspond to the 
course of spiritual development. And at the same time 
they give us some glimpses of the union of man with 
higher and lower intelligences, and explain that mutual 
dependence of all things which the Manichzan and Gnostie 
failed to recognize, and thence fell into the most fatal and 
blasphemous errors, — till we are led to real- 
ize the glorious words of St. Paul, that αὐ 
creation (κτίσις) waiteth for the manifesta- 
tion of the Sons of God, groaning and tra- 
vailing in pain until now. 

3. Again, we are taught to recognize the working of 
Providence not only in the outer world of 
nature, but also in the inner world of action; 
while experience shows that the control of the general 
result is reconciled with individual freedom! To this end 
the reality and depth of prophecy is set before us in the 
records of Judaism, of which Christianity is, in the highest 
sense, the proof and fulfilment.? In the various events 
detailed in the Old Testament Scriptures, 
which were written for our learning, the 
Jews became figures of us. The private fortunes of their 
monarchs, and the national revolutions of their,race; the 
general import of their history, and the wider significance 
of their prophecies, as well as the more explicit predic- 
tions, all receive their complete accomplishment in Messiah 


Rom, viii. 19—22, 
Cf. Eph. i. 10, 20— 
8; Col. i. 20; Phil. 
ii. 9, 10. 


c. Prophecies, 


1 Cor, x. 6, 11. 


is needed to interpret this cipher is 
shortly expressed in the words of our 
Lord (Luke xxiv. 25), ὦ ἀνόητοι (νοῦς) 


1 The confirmation of this great doc- 
trine by statistics is one of the most 
striking results of modern science. Cf. 


a table from M. Quetelet in Mrs. Somer- 
ville’s Physical Geography, ii. pp. 3883-4. 

2 Le Vieux Testament est un chiffre. 
Pascal, Pensées, ii. 247; ef. pp. 242 ff 
The Jews had a proverb: Vana lex 
donee venerit Messias. Cf. Orig. de 
Prine. iy. 6, quoted in App. B. What 


καὶ βραδεῖς TH καρδίᾳ (διάνοια. cf. Eph. 

1. 18. varr. Jectt.). Compare also Rom. i. 

21, ἐματαιώϑησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς 
ε ae 

. καὶ ἐσκοτίσϑη ἢ ἀσύνετος αὑτῶν 


καρδία. Eph. iv. 17, 18, ἐν ματαιότητι 
τοῦ νοὺς αὐτῶν ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ 
διανοίᾳ. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 53 


and His kingdom. It is then through the Evangelists that 
the Holy Spirit has afforded us a true insight into the 
inner meaning of the Prophets, who were the historians 
of the elder dispensation, as in the Epistles He has set 
forth the antitypes of the ancient law. That is surely a 
meagre theology and unscholarlike criticism which finds 
nothing more than a fanciful adaptation in the Scriptures 
quoted in the opening chapter of St. Matthew, and nothing 
deeper than an arbitrary variation in the different words 
by which each passage is introduced. On the contrary, it 
seems as if, from verse to verse, the full glory and wisdom 
of the past were gradually disclosed to us, as we are 
directed to regard the types of the Messiah in the crises 
of personal or national history; and then to acknowledge 
the fulness of the more distant Christian analogies in 
the outward fortunes of the Jews; and, lastly, to accept 
the reality of the minuter deductions from their prophetic 
teaching.? 

But if we admit the Inspiration of Scripture as sufli- 
ciently proved by external and internal evi- 
dence, a difficulty still remains, — for how, it 
may be asked, can it be shown that the col- 
lection of inspired writings forms a complete 
record of the revelation which it commemorates? There 
was a time when the Bible, which we regard as one volume 
and call by one name, existed only in its separate parts, 


11. The complete- 
ness of Scripture. 
Statement of the 


1 (a) Matt. i. 22, τοῦτο ὅλον γέγονεν 
ἵνα πληρωδ)ῇ. 

A personal historic type, Is. vii. 44. 
Immanuel (cf. viii. 1) — Jesus. 

(8) Matt. ii. 15, ἣν ἐκεῖ---ἴνα πλη- 
ρωϑῇ. 

A national historic type, Hos. xi.1. 
Israel — Messiah. 

(y) Matt. ii. 17, τότε ἐπληρώϑε τὸ 
ῥηϑέν. 

An analogy in Jewish history, Jer. 
xl. 1. The mother of Israel weeping 
for her children taken from her. 


(δ) Matt. ii. 23, ὅπως πληρωϑῇ τὸ 
ῥηδὲν διὰ τῶν προφητῶν. 

A deduction from prophetic lan- 
guage. Psalm xxii. 6. Is. 111]. 3. 

It is very remarkable that the final 
conjunctions (iva, Omws) never occur 
with the optative in the New Testament, 
unless Eph. i. 17, iii. 16, may possibly 
be exceptions. Is the explanation to 
be sought for in the fact that the truest 
instinct leads us to regard every issue 
as still working and waiting for a pres- 
ent accomplishment? 


5* 


54 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


till at length it gained its present form after long and 
anxious questionings. And though we believe that history 
bears clear witness to our canonical books, and to no 
others, still history, it may be said, cannot assure us that 
they contain all the points of divine truth which it is 
needful for us to know. Whatever is taught by Inspira- 
tion is authoritative; but how can we learn that all neces- 
sary elements of inspired teaching have been committed 
to writing? At the first glance the several books appear 
to be disconnected and incidental. In many cases they 
were composed to meet the wants of a special crisis, — to 
instruct, to correct, to confirm individuals or churches. 
There is nothing to show that the Apostles, if we regard 
only the New Testament, entertained any design of 
delivering to future ages a full written account of the 
Christian faith, or a perfect system of Christian doctrine. 
On the contrary, there is a marked difference in the points 
of sight from which they regard the Christian dispensa- 
tion; and they all seem to shrink in common from claim- 
ing for their own writings a rank coédrdinate with that of 
the Old Testament Scriptures. 

The slightest thought will show that such inquiries will 
not admit of one peremptory answer, though 
the traditional view of Holy Scripture, by 
which we regard the several books as neces- 
sarily connected, renders us to a great extent insensible to 
many of the difficulties which they really involve. This 
traditional belief has, indeed, practically its proper use and 
reward; but where investigation is possible, belief must 
be the goal and not the starting-point, the conclusion and 
not the premiss of our reasoning. 

But while we allow that the difficulties thus raised are 

real, they are still not singular or exceptional, 
ΠΣ pda but analogous to those common mysteries of 
aes our being which are rarely felt, only because 
they are universal. The action of Providence in every 
case is lost inamystery. In one aspect most things in the 


The difficulties are 
real, and yet 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 5 
Ὁ 


life of an individual seem to be casual and unimportant; 
and yet, when we observe from time to time indications 
of a providential plan in its general course, we practically 
admit that the same superintending power penetrates into 
those apparently trivial details which really mould the 
character of the whole. So, again, in the history of nations: 
it is at first difficult to recognize how the 
feuds of party and the confusion of popular 
cries can form any part of a divine scheme for the govern- 
ment of the world; and yet, when we discover on a wide 
survey traces of such a controlling influence, we are forced 
to allow that it extends to common things, and works by 
means which antecedently seem totally inadequate to the 
issue. Or, to take yet another example: the 
vast and various convulsions which have 
broken up the surface of the earth, and covered it with 
scars and ruins, seem little like the manifestations of 
infinite wisdom; and still, when it is known that they were 
needed to fashion the fair diversity of woods and waters, 
and to bring within the reach of man the treasures stored 
up by certain laws in the depths below, we acknowledge 
that Providence not only inspires the general law, but acts 
equally by those changes and outbreaks which interrupt 
its ordinary working. 

These examples of the action of Providence in the indi- 
vidual, in society, in nature, will illustrate 
the form in which we may expect it to be 4. Qune jor inthe 
shown in securing the completeness of the "ποίου & Prove 
records of revelation; for, in relation to 
Holy Scripture, the belief in Providence is the neces- 
sary supplement to the belief in Inspiration. And if we 
find that God works concurrently with the exercise of 
man’s free agency; that He finds even in the weak- 
nesses and imperfections of His creatures efficient ser- 
vice; that the traces of a plan and purpose which are dis- 
closed by a comprehensive view of His dealings, suggest 
the existence of order and completeness throughout, and 


in society, 


in nature. 


56 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 
ἈΞ 
reconcile us to the presence of disturbing influences, — we 
may reasonably expect to meet with similar phenomena in 
the relation of Providence to Scripture ; so that it will 
be no fatal objection to the completeness of the Bible, that 
it is composed of writings not only occasional and per- 
sonal, but also beset with various conflicting difficulties, if 
there are clear signs of a consistent historical recognition 
of this completeness, and also traces of a mutual de- 
pendence and general unity in the books themselves. 
For though it is true that history cannot prove directly 
the completeness of the Scriptures, it can 
aera Hsery furnish strong presumptions that they are 
complete. The same divine messengers who 
committed to writing the original records of revelation, 
embodied their teaching in a visible society. The Bible 
and the Church trace back their claims to the same source, 
and each can appeal to the other to bear witness to its per- 
manent integrity. If then it appear, to take one example, 
that the earliest description of the Christian body recog- 
nizes exactly those elements which are found in the apos- 
tolic writings; if the Articles of Belief and the forms of 
worship are exactly those which are either suggested or 
prescribed in them; if Christians with a common consent 
appealed to the New Testament, as soon as its constituent 
books were collected into one volume, as an adequate and 
final source of Christian doctrine; and if the same be 
true of the Old Testament,—no one who believes that 
the lessons of Providence are legibly written in the in- 
stinctive judgments of society will doubt that the Bible 
was intended to be that for which the Church has received 
it — a complete record of all that was of permanent import 
in successive revelations. That the proposed conditions 
are satisfied by the mutual relations of the Scriptures and 
the Church from age to age, history can show most clearly. 
The indistinctness which hangs over isolated details arises 
commonly from the narrowness of the field of sight. On 
a wide view nothing can be more striking than the inde- 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. af 


pendence and unity of the written Word and the organized 
Body. And this independence and unity offer the clear- 
est proof of their individual symmetry and completeness. 
Nor is this all: it is possible that some outward sym- 
metry may be found to exist in the mutual 
relations of the different fragments of which (oor in gm 
the Bible consists; and the argument from Tilers of Serip- 
design is proportionately more convincing as 
the elements in which the design is traced are more nu- 
merous and naturally less connected. That this is so, 
seems indeed to be indicated by the very form of the 
Bible. To take an illustration again from the New Testa- 
ment: the obvious analogy between the quadriform Gospel 
and the four classes of Epistles, the peculiar fitness of the 
Acts as a mediative element to connect them together 
doctrinally and historically, the lasting significance of the 
Apocalypse as a prophetic and typical view of the fortunes 
of the Church to the end of time, create an impression of 
original unity among the component parts which thus pro- 
duce a well-proportioned whole. And if, on a further ex- 
amination of the books, it appear that the different char- 
acters of their writers, the variety of styles in which they 
are composed, the manifold circumstances by which they 
were called torth, contribute, in each case, some distinctive 
feature to the image of truth which they combine to pro- 
duce, is not the idea of completeness a natural conse- 
quence of a combination as marvellous as it is unexpected? 
But the subtle organization of Scripture, no less than that 
of nature, is only revealed to a watchful and attentive eye. 
A passing hint may arouse inquiry, but nothing less than 
a patient and candid study of the Bible can convey any 
notion of the intimate relations which exist between its 
several parts. Each fresh point of sight presents to the 
eye new harmonies of detail and form. On a full survey 
contrasts are successively exposed and subdued; irreg- 
ularities are brought within the general plan; ornaments 
gain a constructive importance; and, as in some noble 


58 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


monument, each well-wrought fragment is stamped with 
the marks of independence and design. The circum- 
stances under which each workman wrought, no less than 
the peculiarities of his work, prove his real independence ; 
and the manner in which every peculiarity contributes to 
the whole effect, shows that all alike were obedient to the 
design of one great architect. 
If it be still said that there are gaps and chasms in the 
Canon; that the structure does not, in all 
a tendency towm- yespects, correspond to the plan; that much 


metry and order is 


all that we can yet appears unfinished and insecure, — it may be 
cartons enough to reply, that there is at least a clear 

tendency towards unity in its different parts, 
not discernible at first, but growing ever clearer to those 
who look most closely into it; and that such a tendency 
towards order and perfection is all that can as yet be 
found in the worlds of nature and man, though these are 
confessedly complete in design, as being the immediate 
works of God. The distinctness of this first revelation is 
obscured by the existence of evil in a thousand forms, 
which seems to contradict our notions of almighty power 
and love; and it is likely that the same kind of difficulties 
should reiippear, however God makes himself known. If, 
then, we acknowledge in nature a perfection of plan, 
though we cannot make it out in all its details, and com- 
plete by faith the order which we see commenced at inter- 
vals, it is reasonable to regard the completeness of Scrip- 
ture in the same way, and to submit patiently to the ex- 
istence of uncertainties and difficulties in the Bible, which 
we find also in the only other manifestations of God’s 
working with which we can compare it. They may, 
indeed, be necessarily introduced by the narrow range of 
our observation and experience, or be absolutely necessary 
for our probation and discipline. And though this mode 
of arguing may perhaps seem weak and inconclusive to 
those who have scarcely felt the difficulties which it is 
intended to meet, yet it may be remarked that we can 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 59 


have nothing to guide us but analogies and presumptions, 
ideas of fitness and order, gathered from the outward goy- 
ernment of the world, when we endeavor to reason on 
God’s dealings with man. Nor can it be said again that 
such analogies only exist between the revela- τε ΘΕ ΈΜΝΝ 
tion in nature and the revelation to men; weu as the original 
for what is true of the original revelation is Ὁ 
true also of the permanent record. The individual char- 
acter, as has been already shown, is an essential part of 
both, as far as man is concerned. ‘The finiteness and im- 
perfection of human nature must everywhere be felt in 
Divine things ; and the supposition that a complete record 
of revelation may be found in writings apparently casual 
and fragmentary, introduces no difficulty which is not 
already found in another form in the primary conception 
of revelation, and in the first expression of its truths. In 
all alike, God works through man according to the natural 
laws of thought and action; and thus the One becomes 
manifold, and the whole can be contemplated only in its 
component parts. 

From what has been said, it follows that the personal 
conviction of the Inspiration and Complete- 
ness of Scripture depends, in a great meas- ΠῚ The _Inter- 


pretation of Scrip- 


sure, upon the accurate study of the Sacred fire The το ες, 
Writings themselves; and thus it is im- jfolw—tosecure 
portant to fix within certain limits the great 

principles by which they must be interpreted. Nor is this 
difficult in a general sense, however many difficulties may 
be involved in the application of the principles to every 
detail. Two great objects appear to be in- 
cluded in the work of the interpreter: the ane apaeinl 
strict investigation of the simple meaning of δ 

the text, and the development of the religious teaching 
which lies beneath it. The first regards the form, and the 
second the spirit of Scripture. The one rests on the ac- 
knowledged permanence of the essential relations between 
thought and language; the other, on the Providential pur- 


60 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


pose which is seen to exist in the successive records of the 
Divine history of the world. The religious truth is con- 
veyed through the medium of human conceptions; and 
human conceptions are used for the expression of religious 
truth. The essence of Inspiration does not lie in the form 
alone, or in the spirit alone, but in their combination. If 
the form be the result of direct Inspiration, it follows that 
Scripture contains a revelation of pure physical truth, 
which is contrary to experience ; if, on the other hand, the 
action of Inspiration be limited to the spiritual element, 
it follows that this must be separable from the form, which 
has been shown to be impossible. 
At a time when extended criticism has proved that the 
very inflections of words have a mental sig- 
pi ctu hificance, and answer to some peculiarity of 
on strict grammat- race, it seems almost superfluous to remark, 
that idioms of language are but the embodi- 
‘ments of national character; that an idiom is the start- 
ing-point and not the end of inquiry. Yet long tradition 
has sanctioned the application of principles to Biblical 
criticism which are abandoned in all other subjects; and 
it has been held to be a final answer in difficulties of 
expression in the Old and New Testaments that they 
are “Orientalisms.” If this be true, it is evident that 
the difficulty is only removed one step further back: why, 
it must be asked, was the Eastern phrase so turned? of 
what mental condition is it asymptom? Surely we may 
believe that the Hebrew spirit still lives in the character- 
istics of the Hebrew language; and if so, the close analysis 
of each Hebrew idiom will lay open something of the 
inner workings of that mind through which the world was 
prepared for “the kingdom of God.” 
nee The theory of “ Orientalisms” has exercised 
of accurate analy- its most fatal influence on the interpreta- 
the vew Tataxent, tion of the New Testament. The presence 
eee of a foreign coloring in the Greek writings 
of the Apostles is so striking, that we may be inclined 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 61 


to smile at the labors of the purists of the last century. 
But to one who looks beneath the surface, this combi- 
nation of Hebrew idiom with Greek words is a fact of 
the utmost significance. The Hebrews realized more viv- 
idly than any nation the present working of God in the 
world, and contemplated even nature from a theocratic 
standing-point. The Greeks, again, scrutinized with the 
nicest discrimination the powers of man and the objects 
of sense; and, by a vocabulary of infinite fulness, per- 
petuated the knowledge which they gained. And what 
more fitting vehicle can we conceive for the 
enunciation of the highest truth than that @”7rerty of the 
Hebraizing Greek which unites all that was 
noblest in the forms of Hebrew thought with all that was 
richest in the stores of Greek expression ? 

But it is said that the Alexandrine Greek was a mixed 
and degenerate dialect, and that it therefore 
offers no sure ground for minute criticism. gv" Ye 
With equal reason the student of Euripides em 07 jreating 
might complain of the arbitrary license of 
Homer or Theocritus, because they do not conform to the 
Attic standard; and yet the most startling anomalies of 
the earliest and latest authors can be reduced to an ar- 
rangement in harmony with the general principles of 
language. The transition from the Greek of Aristotle to 
that of St. Paul is in fact less abrupt than might have been 
expected; but even if it were as great as it is commonly 
supposed to be, the real state of the case would remain 
unchanged. The laws of syntax and the 
sense of words may be modified in the lapse i areas: 
of time, or by external influences; but the  grdwinle varies 
great law, by which words are the living ex- 
ponents of thought, remains unchanged, and the modifica- 
tions are themselves necessarily subject to some law. It 
is reasonable to expect that the grammar of the New 
Testament may not in every point coincide with the gram- 
mar of Homer, or Herodotus, or Xenophon. The style of 

6 


62 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


St. Paul or St. John may differ as much from that of each 
of these as they differ severally from one another. But it 
is the work of the scholar to determine the specific char- 
acter of the writer before him, and to explain in what 
way he has been led to diverge from the normal type of 
neat expression. And, further, the laws which 
est revolutions in Cetermine the continuity of language are not 
i broken by the infusion of foreign elements, 
as long as the language retains a living energy. The 
history of our own literature proves that it is a mere 
assumption that a language loses even in precision by the 
incorporation of new forms and words. On the contrary, 
increased facility of expression gives occasion for the fixing 
of minute differences of conception which would other- 
wise be evanescent. And when the Apostolic writers use 
a Greek dialect, variously modified by Eastern thought, 
they are not removed from the pale of strict criticism, but 
rather present a problem of unusual interest from the vari- 
ous relations of the elements which it combines. 
Nor can it be urged against this view that the Apostles 
oe at were unlettered men, and consequently un- 
of rude diatectsas likely to speak with exactness; for it is cer- 
PES: tain that the use of provincial dialects is no 
less strict than that of the purest idiom. The very power 
of language lies in the fact that it is the spontaneous ex- 
pression of thought. Education may extend the range of 
knowledge, but experience is an adequate teacher of that 
which lies before us. Even, naturally, Galilean fishermen 
were no less qualified than others to watch the processes 
of the spiritual life, and adapt to their own needs the 
words which the Septuagint had already consecrated to a 
divine use. 
All intelligent interpretation of Scripture must then be 
Peete based upon a strict analysis of its idioms and 
the disregard of Words. ΤῸ suppose that words and cases are 
language, ἡ 
convertible, that tenses have πὸ absolute 
meaning, that forms of expression are accidental, is to 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 63 


betray the fundamental principles on which all intercourse 
between men is based. A disbelief in the exactness of lan- 
guage is the prelude to all philosophical skepticism. And 
it will probably be found that the same tendency of mind 
which discredits the fullest teaching of words, leads, how- 
ever little we may see it, to the disparagement of all out- 
ward revelation. : 

But when the interpreter of Scripture has availed him- 
self of every help which historical criticism 
can furnish for the elucidation of the text, — 
when, by the exact investigation of every 
word, the most diligent attention to every 
variation of tense and even of order, the clearest recollec- 
tion of the associations of every phrase, he has obtained a 
sense of the whole, perfect in its finer shades and local 
coloring, no less than in its general outline and effect, —his 
work is as yet only half done. The literal sense is but 
the source from which the spiritual sense is to be derived ; 
but exactly in proportion as a clear view is gained of all 
that is special in the immediate object and position of each 
writer, it will be found that the simple record appears to be 
instinct with Divine life; for, as has been already noticed, 
the external circumstances and mental characteristics of 
the writer are not mere accidents; but, inasmuch as they 
influence his apprehension and expression of the truth, 
they become a part of his Divine message. And the 
typical speciality which springs from this is the condition 
at once of the usefulness and of the universality of 
Scripture, 

The existence of an abiding spiritual sense underlying 
the literal text of the Old Testament is suf- 
ficiently attested by the quotations in the bea τ ane 
New. Unless it be recognized, many of the ὉΠ 
interpretations of the Evangelists and Apostles must ap- 
pear forced and arbitrary; but if we assume that it exists, 
their usage appears to furnish an adequate clew to the in- 
vestigation of its most intricate mazes. It must always be 


2. Spiritual In- 
terpretation based 
on the Literal In- 
terpretation. 


64 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


a difficult task to appreciate rightly the spiritual lessons of 
history, to detect the real analogy between past and 
present, to understand the fleeting symptoms of good and 
evil, to compare the several sides of truth and error; but 
the task is one which is ever assigned to men. Mere me- 
chanical infallibility is but a poor substitute for a plenary 
inspiration, which finds its expression in the right relation 
between partial human knowledge and absolute Divine 
oe oe truth. And if this view imposes upon the 
the primary sexe interpreter of Scripture a work of endless 
of Scripture. 4 Ξ E 
labor, at least it clears from his way formida- 
ble difficulties which would otherwise beset him, and that 
not by any arbitrary division of the contents of the Bible, 
but in virtue of its essential character. The inspired 
truthfulness of the prophet does not lie in the view which 
he takes of natural phenomena, but in the relation in 
which this partial conception stands to some spiritual 
lesson. It is a noble and glorious task to follow into their 
remotest results, and reduce to their simplest forms, the 
laws which govern the world in relation to ourselves; but 
this is not the work of the messenger of revelation. It is 
enough that he should view nature as his contemporaries 
view it, while at the same time he adopts exactly so much 
of the popular belief as serves to illustrate and explain 
his message. The “days” of creation, the “windows of 
heaven,” the “steadfastness of the round world,” the “hand 
of God,” and the like, are expressions which, while they 
are intelligible to the simplest minds, perpetuate at the 
same time great facts which the highest culture can 
scarcely realize. No part of human knowledge is absolute, 
except such as follows directly from the laws by which the 
mind of man is limited; and probably it will be found that 
elements of permanent truth lie hid in the various aspects 
of nature preserved in the Bible, as in the doctrines of 
the Apostles there are certainly traces of the anticipation 
of wants which have scarcely yet been fully realized after 
the course of ages. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. 65 


Meanwhile the Interpretation of Scripture no less than 

its true Completeness is being ever set forth 
in the history of the Church. The Christian — ,7¢™erpretation 
of Scripture  out- 


is not even outwardly alone in the endeavor  pardly realized in 
to gain the manifold lessons of revelation. 

The same Providence who guided the composition of the 
Bible, has also furnished a Commentary on it in the for- 
tunes of mankind. And it will easily be seen that there 
is a perfect analogy between the Church and the Scriptures 
in their relation to the private Christian. When united 
they complete the circle of his external defences; but if 
they be separated, he is led either into superstition or into 
doubt. Both contain and convey mediately the grace 
necessary for his support, and yet only so far as the 
Holy Spirit works with and through them. The out- 
ward form in each case brings the essence within the 
reach of man, and places within our grasp that which 
is otherwise too subtle for our present senses. The enun- 
ciation and the embodiment of truth are adapted to our 
finite nature; and it is alike unreasonable to say that we 
do not need a true Bible and to maintain that a definite 
Christian society is unnecessary for the full unfolding of 
the spiritual life. 

Yet there are difficulties in detail which must be brought 
before the individual judgment. Careless- 
ness, we allow, has given currency to false 
readings in the text of Scripture; but the 
number and variety of the authorities which may be used 
to correct them is not only unequalled but unapproached 
in the range of ancient literature. The laws of criticism 
are absolute, and the Christian may confide with implicit 
reverence in their issues. Heresy, again, may draw its 
doctrine from the Bible; but what does that show, except 
that Scripture has many sides, which must be combined 
and harmonized, and not severed and distorted according 
to the bent of our private will? The laws of language, 
as those of criticism, are absolute, and the Christian may 

6* 


The province of 
criticism. 


66 INSPIRATION, COMPLETENESS, AND 


trust in them as the certain outward expression of the 
deepest truths. 

Nor can the existence of these final difficulties appear 

pest ταί oustrange and unnatural. We have no reason 
lowed by aspirituat to conclude, from our knowledge of the whole 
ee character of God’s dealings, that He might 
be expected to preserve ever inviolate what He has once 
given. The world, which was at first good, is now full of 
evil; man, who was at first blessed, has fallen under the 
curse of sin; and such contingencies seem to be involved 
necessarily in the idea of a finite existence. But a redemp- 
tion has been wrought for both; and so too, on the histori- 
cal side of our religion, an uncorrupted Bible lies before us, 
if we patiently and candidly search for it, and a true per- 
sonal interpretation may be gained by sincere and faithful 
study. In both cases, however, the task is something more 
than a merely mechanical or intellectual process. Who- 
ever has watched attentively the workings of his own 
mind, will feel that in criticism and philology there is still 
room for the operation of that Spirit of God which is 
promised to the Christian scholar. Variations may exist 
on the one side, and ambiguities on the other, which dis- 
appear when brought before the scrutiny of the spiritual 
judgment. 

It will be my object in the following Essay to determine 
in what way the principles thus indicated 
may be applied to the study of the Gospels ; 
to determine how far their origin and con- 
tents fall in with the general order of Providence, and 
suggest the presence of that deep and hidden wisdom in 
which we have found the characteristic of Inspiration. 
And if it can be shown that the Gospel sums up in the 
record of the Incarnation all that was evolved of spiritual 
import in the long discipline from the Captivity to the 
Advent; if it can be shown that the time at which they 
were written was at once most suited to their publication, 
and yet least likely to have given birth to them; if it can 


Summary of the 
plan of the Essay. 


INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE. ΟἿ 


be shown that they grew up as it were spontaneously in 
the Church without effort and without design, and yet 
have a distinct relation in their four-fold diversity to the 
past and future wants of the Church; if it can be shown 
that in the difference of letter there is a perfect unity of 
spirit; that there is a special tendency and plan in the 
writing of each Evangelist, arising out of the position 
which he held in the Catholic Church ; that the varieties of 
detail and the succession of incidents converge to one com- 
mon point, and conduce to one common end; if it can be 
shown that in particular parts the teaching of the different 
Gospels may be combined into a whole of marvellous sym- 
metry and completeness, — the residuum of difficulties and 
alleged discrepancies will seem of little weight. We shall 
see a noble view opened of the relation of the Gospel to 
the former and future history of the world, and of the 
Gospels to the Gospel itself. We shall feel that deep 
sense of the continunl presence of the divine influence, and 
that firm conviction of the unerring truthfulness of the 
sacred writers, which can only be gained by a comprehen- 
sive view of the complete subordination of every part of 
Seripture to the training of man and the realization of his 
hopes. We shall then find nothing superfluous in the 
repetitions of the Gospels, and nothing inconsistent in 
their variety, any more than in the fresh groupings and 
different prospects of some earthly scene. We shall un- 
derstand, with the great master of Alexandria, that “every 
word, if rightly viewed, effects a special purpose ;” for 
revelation is not a vain thing for us ; it is our life, 


Gp nibs py ΓΙΣ 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


Αὐτομάτη ἣ γῆ καρποφορεῖ, πρῶτον χόρτον, εἶτα στάχυν, εἶτα πλήρης 


σῖτος ἐν τῷ oTaxvi. —ST. MARK iy. 28. 


Tue Bible is the oldest and truest vindication of the 
dignity of history. When the Jewish Church 
numbered the ancient records of their state 
among the works of the prophets, they ac- 
knowledged that insight and foresight are only varieties of 
the same faculty, differing in their objects and not in their 
essence. The present, if we could read it rightly, contains 
the past and future, though that which is real and abiding is 
enveloped in a mass of confused details, so that it is visible 
only to the eye of the true seer. This follows indeed from 
the nature of the case; for truth in itself is absolutely one. 
But though it is one in itself it can only be manifested 
partially ; and human history, in the highest sense, is the 
record of its successive manifestations in the life of men 
and man. In this respect History may be likened to the 
gradual unveiling of some godlike figure. The imagina- 
tion of the inspired artist can divine its perfect form 
from the contemplation of the first fragment, but to the 
common sight it passes slowly from stage to stage to the 
fulness of its finished beauty. But each part which is re- 
vealed remains open forever. History is not only progres- 
sive in its course, but also progressive in the form of its 
teaching. All its records are held together by a real har- 
mony, and instinct with one design. Each fresh convul- 


The true idea of 
Tistory. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 69 


sion leaves the earth further advanced towards its final 
purpose, though for the time it is covered with ruins. 
And in this sense History is a nobler Biography, the tale 
of a nobler life than man’s; for even if at present we can 
but see it dimly, there appears to be a common life not 
only in nations, but in the world, if the best conception of 
life which we can form is that of activity combined with 
organization, the permanence of the whole reconciled with 
the change of the parts, a power of assimilation and a 
power of progress. 

Any real appreciation of Christianity, in its world-wide 
relations, must rest upon some such view of 
History as this. Christianity cannot be sep- 16. coming of 
arated from the past any more than from the 9 /uman history; 
future. If we may venture so to speak, it 
was not an accident or an after-thought, but foreknown 
“before the foundation of the world.” The Incarnation, 
as it is seen now, is the central point of all History. And 
more than this, if we regard the great issues of life, all 
past history, as far as it has any permanent significance, 
appears to be the preparation for that great mystery, and 
all subsequent history the gradual appropriation of its 
results. Isolated efforts were made in ancient times to 
anticipate the truth for which men were waiting; and op- 
posing powers sought to check its influence when it was 
set forth in the life of Christ; but premature development 
and open antagonism served in the end to display the 
supremacy and consolidate the power of revelation. The 
Gospel was no sudden or solitary message. The legend of 
Pallas is the very converse of the Nativity. Christianity 
is, in one sense, as ancient as the Creation, resting on a 
foundation wide as the world and old as time. Step by 
step the ground-work of the Church was laid in the silent 
depths, and at last, when all was now ready, it rose above 
the earth, that all men might consciously combine to rear 
the spiritual temple of the living God. 

What is true of the subject of the Gospel is true, in a 


70 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


less complete degree, of the record. The writings of the 
eS a ine New Testament are not a separate and ex- 
Ἵν τον ceptional growth, but the ripe fruit of minds 
world-wide erain- Which had been matured through long ages 
1 of various fortunes and manifold influences. 
The very language in which they are written is in some 
sense an epitome of ancient history. For it was the will 
of Providence that the people whom He destined to be- 
come the special depository of His revelations should 
not only develop their individual character, but also, by 
contact with Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome, assimilate 
the foreign elements necessary to the perfection of their 
work. The history of the Jews thus becomes, as it were, 
the key to the history of the world; and, by regarding the 
various stages through which it passed, it is possible to 
distinguish the various constituents which combined to 
form the character of the Apostles and to prepare men for 
their teaching. 
It follows, as a necessary consequence, that the Old 
Testament is itself the divine introduction 
thisthaininy part, to the New. In the records of the religious 
ὑπ ας Οἰά life of the Jews, in the settling of worship, 
and the widening of hope, it is possible to 
see the foreshadowings of apostolic doctrine, while the 
Vicissitudes of their national history exhibit most clearly 
the growing purposes of God. A kingdom was reared on 
the ruins of the theocracy. A hierarchy succeeded to the 
place of the vanquished kingdom. When the Law of 
Moses had lost its power under the complicated forces of 
advancing civilization, it was quickened with a new life by 
the zeal of the prophets; and the labors of priests and 
scribes in after-time formulized what the prophets had 
taught, that a conquered and tributary people might yet 
find a definite support for their ancient belief. 
But the records of the Old Testament deal only with 
the central periods of the history of Israel, the times of 
direct spiritual instruction, of the Law, and the Prophets ; 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. TE 


and the last period of preparation which followed the 
Captivity, like the first preparation in Egypt, 
is too often regarded asa blank. Yet it is in the. poor BOM? 
in this especially that we must trace the ‘Mjriv7 mew 
growth of that spirit which fixed the limits 2 impermae ὧν 
of Judaism and prepared the way for the ad- 
vance of Christianity. Even in the absence of a continuous 
literature the progress of the people is marked clearly by 
definite events, fruitful in lessons on the course of national 
life. 

The mission of Ezra, “the second Moses” as he was 
called, like that of the first, was followed by 
a period of silence. It was needful that the (found welt 
law which was written on tables should be 
realized in life. Meanwhile Persia had a work to accom- 
plish for Israel no less than Egypt; and till this was done, 
the wisdom of the East was not yet exhausted. After- 
wards the work of Persia was transmitted, in due time, to 
Greece and Rome; and the Jew gained suppleness and 
strength from a literature and an empire as wide as his 
own faith. His faith also was tried by the most varied 
alternations of fortune. At one time a line of native 
heroes gave unity and independence to a subject race ; at 
another, a foreign despot attempted to found a wide do- 
minion upon the basis of the ancient creed. Hope fol- 
lowed hope; and the last form of Jewish nationality was 
shaped under the heavy pressure of critical vicissitudes. 
The rivalry of the Samaritans, the rise of the Hellenistic 
Church, the tyranny of the Syrian kings, the fall of the 
Maccabeean dynasty, the subjection of Palestine to an 
Idumzan dependent of Rome, disciplined the people for 
the coming of Messiah. 

And while the outward fortunes of the Jews after the 
Captivity were thus varied with progressive 
phases of one growing purpose, the changes rine da ΤΣ 
in their inner life were not less remarkable, τ τα 
The century after Ezra was a time of silence, but it was 


72 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


also a time of activity. New faculties were called out by 
a new order of things. An age of reflection followed an 
age of inspiration. The guidance of prophets had fol- 
lowed the close of the theocracy; and in turn the prophets 
were replaced by doctors (Sopherim). Schools of learn- 
ing methodized the study of the law. The scribe and the 
lawyer succeeded to the authority of the priest; and, in 
the words of the Talmud, “the crown of learning was 
nobler than that of empire.”! The definite collection of 
Holy Scriptures marked, indeed, formally, as well as prac- 
tically, the cessation of the immediate teaching of the 
Spirit. The Canon, regarded as a whole, demanded inter- 
pretation, and defined the range of learning. Vernacular 
paraphrases of the sacred Writings satisfied the wants of 
the congregation, and deeper investigations into their 
meaning occupied the place of philosophy. 
The conquest of the East by Alexander inter- 
rupted the course of this national development, and intro- 
duced a new element into Jewish life. The Hebrew and 
the Hellenist stood side by side, at one time in strange 
combination, and again in angry rivalry. It seemed as if 
a new Israel were rising on the banks of the Nile, not only 
trained in the wisdom of Egypt, but courting its favor. 
And even in Palestine there were clearer signs of the 
coming close of the Jewish dispensation than the existence 
of Sadducees or Herodians. The unity of the nation was 
still symbolized in the Temple, but the Synagogue recog- 
nized the existence of its component parts. The people 
looked backward or forward for the manifestation of God’s 
Power, but for the moment they rested on the ordinary 
protection of His Providence. They were, no less than 
before, God’s heritage, but they were also numbered among 
the kingdoms of the earth. 

It is in the great changes thus roughly sketched that we 
must look for the true connection of the two Testaments. 


Grecian periods. 


1 Steinschneider, Jtidische Literatur, p. 859 (Ersch u. Gruber, Encykl. 1850). 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. Ve 


Unless they are taken into account, the very language and 
form of the Apostolic writings must be unin- χη, pvnzations 
telligible; for every page of the New Tes- pair phe Ha ones 
tament bears witness to the depth and per- tid in these peri- 
manence of the effects which they produced. ar 
Nor is there anything unnatural in regarding a period un- 
marked by any direct impress of Divine interposition, as 
cherishing in darkness germs of spiritual life to be quick- 
‘ened in due time. On the contrary, the great epochs of 
revelation are widely separated by ages, which serve at 
once for harvest and seed-time. Such were 
the intervals of silence before the call of 
Abraham, during the Egyptian captivity, and before the 
mission of Samuel; and it may not be a mere fancy if we 
discover some analogy between the period of natural de- 
velopment in the Jewish nation which preceded the birth 
of our Lord, and that period of natural and silent growth 
which ushered in His ministry. The inward conflict was 
completed before the outward manifestation was begun. 
Even when the Divine power was withdrawn from visible 
operation, it was no less certainly engaged in bringing 
within its control new powers, and opening new fields for 
its future work. The end itself came only with the “ ful- 
ness of time.” 

Slowly, and almost imperceptibly, this measure of time 
was filled. The interval between the Cap- 
tivity and the birth of Christ was not only 
fertile in critical combinations of different elements, but 
ample space was given for each to work its full effect. For 
two centuries after the Captivity the Jews? grew up under 
the dominion of Persia; for about a century and a half 
they were under Greek rulers; for a century they enjoyed 
independence under the Hasmonzan princes; and for 


᾽ 


silently and 


slowly. 


1If the word had been current, I the people of Israel —Judceans — Jews ; 
should have preferred to say Judeans. the first name marking their providen- 
In this way a threefold name would tial, the second their local, the third 
significantly mark a threefold history: their sectarian position. 


7 


74 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


more than half a century Rome was supreme through the 
government of her instruments. Or, if we include the Cap- 
tivity, it may be said that for three hundred years the 
spirit of the East was dominant in Juda, to be followed, 

oe for a like period, by the spirit of the West.? 
ageneral surveyof — What then, to define more clearly the out- 
Ware line which has been already drawn, were the 
characteristic influences of these two great periods? How 
‘can we best represent their effects upon the “ people of 
God?” ? 

The Captivity in Babylon, as has been already noticed, 
is in some respects analogous to that in 
Egypt, in its relation to the history of the 
Jews. In both cases the Jews were brought 
into contact with a nation whose material power was 
scarcely greater than its intellectual culture. In both cases 
important changes were wrought in the organization of the 
people which clearly represented the influence of their 
conquerors. But the two exiles were distinguished essen- 
tially in their character. The oppression in Egypt was 
manifested in the personal bondage of individuals; the 
captivity in Babylon was the political subjection of the 
nation. In Egypt we can see a people trained to patient 
endurance and ready submission among masters whose idol 
was science, and whose watchword was changelessness. In 
Persia we can see the same people exhausted by vain hopes, 
and, lamenting a fallen kingdom, led to contemplate the 
sublime truths of a spiritual world among teachers whose 


I. The Persian 
period, as to 


1 The division of the periods corre- 
sponds to that of the first two schools 
into which the Hebrew writers are di- 
vided. The age of the Sopherim began 
with Ezra, and ended with Simon the 
Just. The age of the Tanaim began 
after the death of Simon, and extended 
to the close of the second century. 

2 For the history of the Jews during 
the Persian period Ewald is by far the 
most important authority (Geschichte 


Ezra’s und der Heiligherrschaft, Git- 
tingen, 1852). ‘The smaller work of 
Jost (Allgemeine Geschichte, u. s. w. 
1882) isa valuable summary. Raphall’s 
History of the Jews (vol. i. ii., London, 
1856) contains much useful matter, but 
in a very uncritical form. For the 
later period Jost’s longer work is avail- 
able. Herzfeld’s Geschichte des Volkes 
Israel, u. 8. W., I have not been able to 
see, 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 7d 
perception of the antagonism of good and evil, even amidst 
the worst corruptions, seems to have been only less clear 
than that of their Persian conquerors. The Jews came up 
out of Egypt an entire people, bound together by common 
descent and common sufferings; the voice of Sinai was still 
sounding in their ears when they approached the borders of 
Canaan; the miracles of release were but a prelude to mir- 
acles of conquest. They returned from Babylon no longer 
as a separate nation, but as a colony, to form the cen- 
tral point of a religious commonwealth ; they returned to 
hear the last words of prophecy from those who had guided 
their course, and to recognize in the writings of the past the 
abiding lessons of God; they returned as tributaries to a 
foreign power, and yet with a freedom for hierarchical de- 
velopment which hitherto had been denied them. The 
revolution in their national hopes, in their spiritual posi- 
tion, in their social organization, was distinct and critical. 

The return from Babylon was partial, and not general. 
The people of Israel passed from Egypt, one 
united tribe, to take possession of a promised 
kingdom, and to assert their national inde- 
pendence. From Persia only a small band 
of exiles came back to the home of their 
fathers, while the mass of their countrymen still lingered 
in the land of their captivity, and were content to retain 
their faith while they sacrificed their patriotism. Hence- 
forth the Jews ceased to form one people in a political 
sense, though they had found a spiritual bond which could 
transcend all national differences. While they fought for 
different masters, and even met face to face in adverse 
lines, they could still serve one God with undivided 


(a) National hopes. 
The Jews ty losing 
their independence 
gained a truer spir- 
ttual union and 
higher hopes. 


1 Outwardly the annals of the Jews 
from the time of Nehemiah (B. c. 445) 
to the invasion of Alexander (B. Cc, 332) 
are indeed brief. One event only is 
mentioned — the murder of his brother 
by a high priest in the temple: Joseph. 
Ant. Xi. 7.1. But there are traces of 


Oppression on one side, and heroic en- 
durance on the other: Hecat. ap. Jo- 
seph. c. Apion. 1. 22. 

The chronological errors of the Rab- 
bins, in consequence of this silence of 
history, which introduce a difference 
of 240 years, are noted by Raphall, i. 83. 


76 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


worship. But however insignificant the returning exiles 
may have been in numbers and wealth, yet the return was 
necessary; and from being the centre of a kingdom Jerusa- 
lem became the centre of a creed. But the difference was 
most significant. The growth of a Church succeeded to 
the growth of a people, and the sympathies by which its 
members were united grew wider, as the sources from 
which they rose became more truly spiritual. In losing 
their independence the Jews lost also something of the nar- 
rowness of their first views. No longer needing the close 
limits of Canaan to shut them off from foreign influences, 
they were prepared to maintain their faith in whatever 
land they visited. Deprived of their hereditary dominion, 
they were led to look forward to amore glorious period of 
power, when a Son of David should found an eternal and 
boundless kingdom. Under the presence of foreign rule 
they clung to the sure promises of their higher destiny ; 
and, with higher hopes than they had ever realized before, 
a few poor exiles went forth to conquer the world. 

When once the people was inspired with this new prin- 
eee ciple of life, the prophetic work was ended. 
tion, As a conse- Jt remained only to ponder over the teach- 
quence of this the ς : 
prophetic wok ing of the old prophets, and to read their 
pea words in the light of a new faith. The 
promises were already given, and only asuspension of crea- 
tive energy was needed that it might be possible to con- 
template with steady and undiverted eye the treasures of 
the past. In this sense the Jews were stationary during 
the Persian period; but stationary only so far as they 
entered on no new ground, while they were busy in master- 
ing every position in that which had been already occupied. 
And, as if to prepare them for such a period of repose and 
silence, the last words of Malachi pointed to no new prophet, 


1It cannot, however, be determined Peuple d’Israel, p. 121; a brilliant 
when the court of the Gentiles was ad- sketch of Jewish history from Ewald’s 
ded to the Temple. Ewald, iv. 197. point of view. 

2Cf. Renan, ZLtudes Lhistoire du 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. F 
but to Elias himself as the herald of the last and great- 
est crisis in their history. To some the very name of Mal- 
achi — the Messenger’ — seemed to announce a new epoch, 
and the later tradition which identified him with Ezra was 
only a bolder expression of the same idea. 

But when the personal work of the prophet was finished, 
the need of the collective prophetic teaching 
was deeper than ever; and the warnings of 
ancient history were then sought for most 
earnestly, when the records which contained them were, 
for the mass of the people, as sealed books. The genera- 
tion which grew up in exile adopted the Aramaic dialect 
(Chaldee), which had been already introduced into Pales- 
tine by the Chaldean invaders, and thenceforth Hebrew 
ceased to exist as the national language. But the want 
and the difficulty mutually relieved each other. The provi- 
dential change of language suggested a general limit within 
which the voice of inspiration might be heard, as the fear- 
ful chastisements of the captivity turned men’s minds to 


the prophetic writ- 
tugs were collected. 


the old Scriptures with a devotion unknown before.’ 


1 Cf. Ewald, p. 201, n. 

2 The history of the Jewish Canon is 
necessarily obscure. ‘The books of Mo- 
ses appear to have been united under 
the title of the Law from a very early 
period (2 Kings xxii. 8; ef. Josh. xxiv. 
26, 1 Sam. x. 25?); but though the 
later prophets exhibit a familiar ac- 
quaintance with the works of their pre- 
decessors, there is no evidence to show 
that the prophetic writings were either 
formed into a definite collection, or 
connected with the law before the ex- 
ile. The earliest trace of such a col- 
lection of the prophets (omitting the 
questionable passage, Dan. ix. 2) occurs 
in Ecclesiasticus (xlviii., xlix), where 
the writings of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and 
Ezekiel are mentioned in detail, and 
“the memorial of the twelve prophets” 
blessed. The book of Daniel seems 
thus not to have been reckoned among 
the prophets at that time, though from 


the absence of authentic evidence it is 
impossible to mark the successive steps 
by which the present Canon was deter- 
mined. Prescriptive usage, as in the 
case of the New Testament, is the clear- 
est witness of its early history, till the 
persecution of Antiochus, like that of 
Diocletian, definitely separated the holy 
writings of the suffering Church from 
its remaining literature. But the fact 
that the Hebrew book of Sirach was 
not admitted into the Palestinian Canon 
is a sufficient proof that the distinction 
existed practically long before; and it 
is generally allowed that the contents 
of the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagi- 
ographa were determined by ὁ the great 
Synagogue,” which, according to a 
Jewish tradition, first added the books 
of Proverbs, Canticles and Ecclesiastes 
to the last division. Zunz, Die Gottes- 
dienstlichen Vortriége der Juden, Berlin, 
1832, p. 14, nu. b. Cf. Kehl, §§ 156 ff. 
7* 


78 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 

The cessation of prophecy and the formation of the 
Canon were accompanied by other changes 
in the personal life of the Jews, not less im- 
portant than these, and closely connected 
with them. The Prophets had spoken of a 
“new Covenant,” and of an inward worship of the heart, 
with ever-increasing clearness. The position of the peo- 
ple helped them to accept the lesson. In exile, far from 
the sanctuary, they had learnt, as never before, the power 
of prayer The simple religion of Moses had become 
impossible; and, on the other hand, contact with Persia, 
which stands out from all ancient nations in the simplicity 
of a spiritual worship, naturally led them to realize the 
purity of their faith, and idolatry passed away forever 
from among them. The removal of this peril 
opened the way to a further extension of 
their divine knowledge. The time was come 
when they could contemplate without peril the contending 
powers of an unseen world; and the doctrine of spirits of 
good and evil took shape, not as a foreign accretion, but as 
a seasonable development of their first faith.’ 

Outwardly, however, the great change in the Jewish 
nation after the return was the predominance 
of the hierarchical element in the state. But 
it was a hierarchy of education, and not of 
caste. The records and the institutions of 
Judaism were regarded as the hallowing power, and not 
the class to whom the administration of them was commit- 
ted. In the absence of direct prophetic teaching public 
worship became the witness of God’s presence, and the 


t 


Meanwhile reli- 
gion assumed a 
more personal char- 
acter, and 


the view of the spi- 
ritual world was 
widened. 


(6) Social oryani- 
zation. The hierar- 
chical element pre- 
vailed from 


The famous tradition of the restoration insufficient grounds. Cf. Jost, Gesch. 


of the lost books by Ezra is but an ex- 
aggerated version of the work of col- 
lection which really dates from him. 
4 Ezra xiv. Iren. adv. Her. iii. 21, 2 
(25), ete. 

The existence of the great Synagogue 
itself has been called in question on 


i. 438-50; Ewald, iv. 191; and p. δά, n. 1. 
1 Ewald, iv. 3); and on the remoyal 
of the ark, p. 197, n. The great assem- 
bly introduced daily prayers: Zunz, a. 
a.O.p. 981. Etheridge, Hebrew Litera- 
ture, p. 93 ff. 
2 Cf. Ewald, iy. 207 f. 


THE PREPARATION FOR TIE GOSPEL. 19 


requirements of the Law were extended with scrupulous 
exactness to the details of private life. Two important 
changes in ritual signalized the new order of things. The 
“dispersion” was recognized by the creation of syna- 
gogues :! the close of the prophetic era by the stated read- 
ing of the Law.?, From these necessary innovations other 
results flowed, which exercised an important influence upon 
the character of the people. The anxious 
and excessive zeal which led men to limit 
and overlay the freedom of daily conduct by 
religious observances, tended to invest a select body of 
teachers with almost absolute power. Thus the “scribes” 
soon rose above the priests, and with them 
tradition supplied the place of literature. 
The same result was further strengthened by 
the services of the Synagogue. The reading of the sacred 
text was necessarily attended by a vernacular paraphrase 
(Targum), oral, indeed, yet formed according to strict 
rules, and handed down in regular succession.? Thus 
schools of biblical learning grew up around the synagogues, 
and the members of these passed naturally into the great 
council of the nation (συνέδριον, γερουσία), or into the provin- 
cial assemblies which were framed upon the same model. 


the growing regard 
to the Law, and 


the character of the 
service ofthe Syna- 
gogue. 


1The exact date of the institution 
of synagogues cannot be determined. 
Possibly Ps. Ixxiv.8 may be a refer- 
ence to them, and in that case their 
existence shortly after the return would 
be established; and this is on many 
grounds the most reasonable belief. 

The importance of the institution as 
marking the new stage of tradition is 
recognized in the use of the Synagogue 
(as opposed to Church) for the whole 
outward constitution of Judaism (Lut- 
terbeck, Die Neutestamentlichen Lehr- 
begriffe, Mainz, 1852, 1. 159). 

2 The traces of the public reading of 
the Law are as obscure as those of the 
existence of a primitive Canon. The 
custom was attributed in part to Moses, 
and haying existed partially at least 


under the kings, was established on a 
firm basis by Ezra. Lessons from the 
prophets were added in the time of the 
Maccabees; and at a much later period 
passages from the Hagiographa were 
introduced into special services of the 
Babylonian Synagogue. Zunz,a.a. O., 
pp. 8—7. 

8 Zunz. a. a. O. pp. 7, 8. Cf. Chap. 
τι. (ii) (B). 

4The Sanhedrin probably existed 
from the time of the return, and seems 
to have been formed on the model of 
the Mosaic council (Numb. xi. 16). 
During the Persian period the atten- 
tion of its members would be naturally 
turned to internal affairs; and Ewald’s 
conjecture (iv. 191) seems most just that 
the traditions of “the great assembly” 


80 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 

But the very zeal with which the people sought to fulfil 
the Law, contained the germ of that noxious 
growth by which it was finally overpowered. 
For there was a darker side to the prospects 
of the Jews though their old perils were conquered. Not 
only was the integrity of their national character endan- 
gered, but they were exposed to the subtle temptation of 
substituting formulas for life. BHence arose the necessary 
rections of dogmatism and skepticism; hope strengthened 
into affirmation, doubt descending to denial. Meanwhile 
the fresh joy of life was sinking under the pressure of su- 
perstition; and as the saddest symbol of the direction in 
which they were turning, the people of God shrank from 
naming Him who was their strength.) 

The scanty remains of the literature? which may be re- 
ferred to the Persian period reflect in frag- 
mentary images the characteristic features 
which have been noticed in it. The latest 
writings which were received into the Hebrew Canon are 
rather results of the former teaching of the nation by the 
Law and the Prophets than new elements in its progress. 
They were essentially Holy Writings (ἁγιόγραφα, Methu- 
vim), and not fundamental or constructive, the expression 
and not the spring of a Divine life. In the books of Chron- 
icles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, it is possible to trace a special 
purpose in the prominence given to ritual observances. In 
Esther it might seem that we have a simply human narrative, 


The dangers of 
the period. 


The general char- 
acter impressed on 
the Literature, and 


really refer to the first Sanhedrin. The 
greater political activity of the council 
in the Grecian period is a suflicient 
cause for the adoption of the Greek 
title and the separation of the two 
councils. The earliest allusion to the 
Sanhedrin has been found in a frag- 
ment of Hecateus (Joseph. c. Apion. 
i. 22) referring to c. B. C. 312 (Raphall, 
Hist. of Jews, i. p. 86, fr. Frankel’s 
Monatschrift, Nov. 1851, p 48). 

1 Wie der Volksname sich mit jeder 
der drei grossen Wendungen dieser 


Geschichte andert (Hcbrier; Israel; Ju- 
dier) und jeder als kurzes Merkmal des 
ganzen Wesens der besondern Wen- 
dung gelten kann, ebenso und noch 
mehr der Name Gottes; aber nichts ist 
bezeichnender als dass auf dem ein- 
fachen aber hocherhabenen Jéhve der 
prachtvolle Jahve der Heere mit dem 
sehr frei gebrauchten Jahve, auf diesen 
endlichein .... folgt. Ewald, iv. 224, 

2 Though the remains of the literature 
are small, the wise man complains of 
the multitude of books. Eccles. xii. 12, 


THE PREPARATION FOR TIE GOSPEL. 81 


were it not for that under-current of faith which refers all 
to the Providence of Him whose name is never mentioned. 
The later Psalms are a softened echo of the strains of 
David, and not new songs; hymns for the ordinary service 
of the Temple, and not deep searchings of the heart. In 
Ecclesiastes, again, the sublime questionings of Job pass 
into rhetorical arguments, directed to calm the bitterness 
of outward suffering rather than to fathom the deep rid- 
dles of humanity.’ 

The spirit of the period was rightly appreciated by those 
who ruled it, and finds its true expression in 
the three principles which are attributed to 
the men of “the Great Assembly :” ‘“ Be dis- 
creet in judging; train up many scholars; make a hedge 
around the Law.”? The difficulties of social and national 
life, the conflicting interests of ruler and subject, the anx- 
ious effort to realize in practice the integrity of state and 
citizen, when both were. imperilled by foreign supremacy, 
are attested by the first command, which could never have 
occupied such a place in a land of settled government and 
certain independence. The second command points to 
the true source of strength in an age of transition and con- 
flict. The evils of doubt and dissension are best removed 
by the extended knowledge of the principles embodied in 
the state. In proportion as the different classes of the 
Jewish people were instructed in the writings of Moses and 
the prophets, priestly usurpation on the one hand, and 
popular defection on the other, became impossible. The 
third command alone contains the warning of the coming 
end. The fence was necessary, because the Law was not 


the traditional esti- 
mate of the time. 


1 Ewald places the composition of 
Baruch and Tobit at the close of the 
Persian period (pp. 230, 283), but they 
seem to belong to a later time. 

2 Aboth, i. 1. Cf. Ewald, iv. 219. 
Raphall, Hist. of Jews, i. 118 ff., where 
a somewhat different explanation of the 
three commands is quoted from Fran- 
kel's Monatschrift, vi. 


The Pirke Aboth has been published 
with a German translation and com- 
meutary by Dr. A. Adler, Fiirth, 1851 
(2 Pts.), and also by R. Young, Edinb. 
1852. It is the most important record 
of Jewish thought during the whole 
period, and the short maxims which it 
contains, if written at length, are his- 
tory. 


82 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


only fixed, but dying. Meligion already seemed capable of 
being defined by rule; duty had ceased to be infinite. 
Stern uprightness, devotion to the law, scrupulous ritual- 
ism, — all springing from a heroic faith and tending to a life- 
less superstition, — such were the characteristics of the city 
which on the frontier of the East awaited with undaunted 
courage the approach of the conquering hosts of Alexander. 

Inwardly as well as outwardly the Jewish nation was at 

ee ae that time prepared to support the antagon- 
- i ie ism of Greece. The people had comprehen- 
pared for the con- ded their relation to the world, and the bold 
AOE OE exnvession of the national faith was the 
motto of the last teacher of the great assembly. Simon 
the Just said, “The world ( Olam) hangs on three things: 
the law, worship,’ the practice of philanthropy.”? And 
it was by the strength of this faith that Jerusalem stood 
unshaken when Tyre 1611 In addition to the lively con- 
sciousness of a spiritual mission yet to be fulfilled, the Jews 
found ready defences against the special dangers which 
were involved in Grecian rule. The belief in the abso- 
lute unity of God was so firm that the subtlest form of 
polytheistic worship could no longer endanger its integrity- 
The theocratic aspect of nature was so universal that the 
refinements of pantheism could scarcely make their charms 
felt. Ritualism was so deeply inwrought into common 
life that the teaching of philosophy could at best only gain 
a hearing in the schools. The work of the Eastern world’ 
in training a chosen people was perfected; and it was re- 
served for Greece to bring the bold teaching of reason and 
nature into contact with the rigid forms of truth which 
constituted the centre of the old Dispensation, as it re- 
mained for Rome in after time to present the image of a 


1 Avodah, i. e. service, worship, work. —lJife in its fullest development — rests 
The old commentators agree in refer- on (1) Doctrine, that is spiritual re- 
ying it here to the Temple worship of ligion; on (2) the service of God, that 
sacrifice. is practical religion; on (8) love, as the 

2 Aboth,2. Adler gives a general in- spring of action. 
terpretation to the maxim. The world 8 Ewald, p. 250, 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 83 


kingdom of the world raised upon the foundation of civil 
law and social freedom, in significant contrast with that 
kingdom of God, of which the children of the prophets 
failed to recognize the extent and comprehensiveness. 

The introduction of this new element into Jewish life 
brings with it, in part at least, a change of 
scene. The storm of conquest and the vision cod eer 
of empire passed away, but the true work of δα 
Alexander was perpetuated in the city which he chose to 
bear his name; and which remains after two thousand 
years the common portal of the East and West. Greek, 
Roman, Byzantine, Arab, ruled in turn, but Alexandria 
retained under every dynasty that same catholic character 
which its founder symbolized by placing the temple of Isis 
side by side with the temples of the gods of Greece." 
Alexander prepared a stage in which ample scope and op- 
portunity was given for every combination of thought and 
feeling; and men were found to occupy it. The teaching 
of Philo, Origen, and Plotinus was able to leave its individ- 
ual impress on the three greatest forms of religious faith. 

A large colony of Jews formed a part of the original 
population of the new city; and, after more 
than a thousand years, the descendants of 
“Pharaoh’s bondmen” returned to the land 
of their bondage. A second time, according to the old 
conceit, Israel was preparing to spoil Egypt, now of her 
intellectual as before of her spiritual heritage, while the 
colony grew up in the enjoyment of perfect freedom, under 
the continued influence of the Greek language and litera- 
ture. For some time the mutual influence of the Churches 
of Jerusalem and Alexandria was intimate and powerful. 
Afterwards, from political and social causes, the separation 
grew wider, till the foundation of the temple at Leontopo- 
lis completed the schism. Yet even thus the ancient inter- 
course was not broken off. No beacon-fires announced in 
Egypt the due time of celebrating the new moons,* as 


A new centre of 
Judaism. 


1 Arrian, iii. 1. 2 Cf. Mishna, Rosh Hashn. ii. 284, 


84 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


determined by the Sanhedrin, but still the great body of 
the Alexandrine Jews paid the tribute to the Temple. 
Jerusalem was still regarded as their mother-city : 1 and 
when the famous synagogue at Alexandria was destroyed 
in the reign of Trajan, it was said that “the glory of Israel 
was extinguished.” From this time Judaism acknowledged 
another centre; and three great streams flowed from Alex- 
andria, Babylon and Jerusalem, which carried the name 
and faith of the God of Israel through Africa, Asia, and 
Europe. 

The return from Persia was in itself, as has been shown 
already, the beginning and the preparation of a dispersion: 
the Greek invasion opened the way to its fulfilment, and 
Greek rule neutralized the evils by which it was attended. 

The liberal policy of Alexander towards the Jews was 

imitated by his successors, and the progress 
Pee oa or thelr dispersion was consequently acceler- 

ated.” Ptolemy, it is said, placed Jewish 
soldiers in occupation of Egyptian and African strong- 
holds, in addition to those whom he earried with him after 
his conquest of Jerusalem, and more particularly founded 
the Jewish colony at Cyrene. Seleucus Nicator about 
the same time admitted Jews to the full citizenship of the 
numerous towns which he founded throughout Asia Minor 
and Syria, and Antioch became the seat of an important 
Jewish settlement. Ata later period, Antiochus the Great 
transferred two thousand Jewish families from Babylon 
and Mesopotamia to the disturbed districts of Lydia and 
Phrygia to secure their loyalty. On the shores of the 
Caspian and in the highlands of Armenia the Jews increased 
in number and influence under the protection of the Par- 
thian dynasty. From Egypt they penetrated into Abys- 
sinia, and probably into Arabia; and at last —to antici- 
pate one detail —the work of dispersion was completed 


1 Philo, c. Flace. § 7. schrift. Dec. 1853. Merivale, Romans 
2 Cf. Ewald, pp. 267 ff; Raphall, ii. under the Empire, iii. 851 ff. 
64 ff, wko quotes Frankel, MJonat- 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 85 


when Pompey carried with him to Rome a train of Jewish 
captives. 

Meanwhile the influence of commerce was not less pow- 
erful than the constraint of policy in scatter- 
ing the Jews wherever civilization had pene- 
trated. The power of the Greek arms and the Greek lan- 
guage laid open new paths on every side, and Jews followed 
the conquerors not only as soldiers but as merchants. 
Energy characterized their efforts in the one case no less 
than fidelity in the other, and the wealth which rewarded 
their industry secured them independence and respect. 
But the tendency of this dispersion of commerce was more 
perilous than the dispersion of war. The forces which 
were sufficient to support the people in their first conflict 
were weakened by subdivision. Everywhere they were 
mingled with the heathen population, and yet they were 
doubly isolated; for as their religion divided them from 
their follow-citizens, so the ties of their common nationality 
were weakened by foreign habits. The political divisions 
which followed the captivity were multiplied a thousand- 
fold, and Judea itself was gradually yielding to the influ- 
ence of Greece when the precipitate fury of a persecutor 
finally concentrated the spirit of the people in absolute 
and heroic devotion to the law of Moses. 

The persecution of Antiochus averted the eae Sea 
great outward peril by which the Jewish peo- 

ple were threatened from the West. Sympathy was quick- 
ened throughout the whole body, and directed to one centre. 
The dispersion was reconciled with a real unity when 
the Law was felt to supply the want of a fatherland. The 
lesson which was first taught at the return was completed ; 
and the Church finally assumed the place of the nation. 

The independence, not only popular but personal, which 
was in the end the result of the Greek con- 
quest, deeply affected the whole internal con- 
dition of Palestine. The law became the 
vital centre of a wide-spread Church, but the Church 

8 


commercial. 


The internal his- 
tory of 


86 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


itself was no longer absolutely one. Distinct sects were 
formed when the example of Greece had pre- 
(a) The Jews in pared a new way to speculation; and ac- 


Palestine during 


i. The Greek u- cording to tradition terrible portents pre- 
The rise of sect. ceded the change. After the death of Simon 
the Just, it is said, the scape-goat no longer 

perished among the rocks, but escaped into the wilder- 
ness. The western light of the golden candlestick, which 
had always burned brightly, was now sometimes extin- 
guished. The fire upon the altar languished. The bles- 
sing upon the show-bread ceased.! Antigonus of Socho, 
the first among the doctors who bears a Greek name,’ 
marks the beginning of this era, and tradition describes 
him as the first of the Tanaim. The motto in which his 
doctrine is summed up is, as it were, an epitome of the 
coming controversy, combining the antithetical principles 
which were afterwards dissevered. “Be ye not as ser- 
vants who serve their Lord for the sake of a reward, but 
as servants who serve their Lord without looking for a 
reward; and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”*® The 
first clause offers a protest against the unworthy supersti- 
tion of a ceremonial righteousness; the second reproves 
that proud confidence in self which follows on the first lib- 
eration from legal service. The two distinct truths which 
lay at the root of Pharisaism and Sadduczism are recog- 
nized together, and each excludes the exaggeration of the 
other. The historical position assigned to Antigonus is in 
exact harmony with his teaching. He is said to have been 
the scholar of Simon the Just, the last member of the great 
Synagogue, and the master of Sadoc and Boethus, the 
founders of Jewish rationalism.t| The teacher now rises 
from the Church, Hitherto there had been no schools of 


1 Prideaux, Connexion, ii. 2, fr. Jerus. 4 The story (from the Aboth of R. Na- 
Talm. than) is given by Raphall, i. 161. Soc- 
2 Zunz, p. 36. rates, it will be remembered, numbered 


8. Aboth, 3. This is said (Adler, p. 82) both Antisthenes and Aristippus among 
to be the first instance of the use of his scholars. 
heaven for God. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 81 


faith, no famous men; but at length individual feeling 
found its peculiar expression no less in thought than in 
action. 

Sadduceism was the first and boldest expression of the 
growing passion for freedom. But the type 
of freedom was sought in Greece, corrupted by 
luxury and skepticism, and not in the prophetic 
pictures of the spiritual Israel. After the first assertion of 
man’s absolute independence, a doctrine which contained 
implicitly all the subsequent tenets of the school, the influ- 
ence of the Sadducees on Judaism was purely negative. 
Their existence was a protest against the sufficiency of the 
Pharisaic system; but they offered nothing to replace it. 

While some sought freedom, others, as is always the case, 
strove to exclude the possibility of its opera- 
tion. The rise of Sadduczeism was coincident 
with a reiiction in favor of tradition. The 
Pharisees claimed to possess exclusively the full perfection 
of the Law; and though the spirit by which the ancient writ- 
ings were dictated passed away, the form in which they were 
cast still moulded the oral supplements! which were added 
to complete them. The Halaka and the Haggada—the 
Rule and the Word —represented in their general scope 
the Law and the Prophets; and the primary J/idrash 
(Interpretation) united precept and exhortation at once 
with one another and with Holy Scripture.? But no claim 


Sadducees ( free- 
dom), 


Pharisees (ritual- 
ism). 


1 The best authorities for early Ile- clearness. Cf. note at the end of the 


brew literature are: Zunz’s Gottesd. 
Vortr. εἰ. Juden, already quoted, which 
stands alone for critical accuracy and 
completeness within its peculiar range; 
Steiusclimeider’s article Judische Liter- 
atur, in Ersch and Gruber’s Encyclo- 
pedie (which has been revised and pub- 
lished in English by the author); Eth- 
ridge’s Hebrew Literature, London, 
1856, a very unpretending and useful 
summary. Hirschfeld’s Geist der Tal- 
mudischen Auslegung der Bibel, Berlin, 
1810, is very diffuse and deficient in 


chapter. 

2 As these words are of frequent oc- 
currence, it may be well to trace their 
meaning once for all. 

(1) The general word for Biblical in- 
terpretation in its widest sense (cf. 
Aben Ezra ap. Buxtf. s. v.) is Midrash 
(fr. darash, to investigate aud inter- 
pret). Hence also an exposition or al- 
legorical interpretation is called Da- 
rush (the result of inquiry): the teacher 
generally Doresh, Darshan (interpre: 
ter); and the school baith hammidrash. 


88 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


was made to original divine legislation. It was said that 
an oral Law had been given on Sinai, and that this which 
had been handed down in due succession from the time of 
Moses, when explained by the sayings of the great teachers, 
constituted the necessary supplement to the written Law, 
and completed a perfect code of life, of equal and paramount 
authority in allits parts. It was the work of the Sopherim to 
collect, of the Tanaim to arrange the substance of this oral 
Law. Nor was this done hastily. The first formal classi- 
fication of the contents of the Torah shebeal Peh—the 
Law that is upon the lip —is attributed to Hillel; and the 
six Orders (Sedarim) which he distinguished formed the 
basis of the work of Akiva and Jehuda, when at length, at 
the end of the second century, the Mishna — the repetition 


of the Law — was committed to writing.! 


The word occurs 2 Chron. xiii. 22; 
xxiv. 27. Gesenius gives to rub as the 
radical meaning of the verb: cf. Ges. 
Thes. 8. v. 

(2) The practical precept is Halahka, a 
step, a rule, from halak, to go, hence to 
spend one’s life, to live. The compari- 
son of derek (via, vita, cultus) shows 
clearly how a@ step would naturally ex- 
press a detacked principle of life. The 
cognate form halikah (only in pl.) oc- 
curs trop. Prov. xxxi. 27. 

(3) The narrative, extending from the 
legend to the homily, is Haggada, Ag- 
gada, from nagad, Hiph. Higgid, to 
tell, relate. 

Hirschfeld (Der Geist der Talmud. 
Auslegung, p. 18) gives a different, and, 
I think, an erroneous, explanation of 
the words: halukah, iteratio, yon ha- 
lak, das Nachgehen, Folgen einer Vor- 
schrift, Mithalten, und “der Parthei 
sein.” Haggadah, dicta, sermones, 
von nagad sprechen, erzahlen, meinen, 
— Meinung. 

1 The precepts of this oral law, in 
allusion to their supposed source, were 
called halacoth leMosheh meSinai (pre- 
cepts of Moses from Sinai). This was 
the original habbala (tradition), a name 
applied to the wiitings of the prophets 


(Steinschn. 1. ce. p. 351). For centuries 
this law was preserved by memory or 
in secret rolls (megillath setharim). At 
the end of the second century, when 
the consequences of the defeat of Bar- 
kokeba threatened the utter dismember- 
ment of the Jewish nation, it was com- 
mitted to writing by R. Jehuda (7191 
A. C.), and, being embodied with other 
materials, in six Sedarim (orders) under 
the name of the Mishna (shanah, to 
double, repeat; the word mishneh oc- 
curs for ὦ copy (of the law), Deut. xvii. 
18; Josh. viii. 32), has remained the 
eentral point of all later tradition. 
Round the Sedarim of the Mishna a 
complement of discussions (Gemara ; 
Gamar, to complete) was gradually 
formed, and the whole was completed 
at Babylon in 498 A. c. The study of 
the Mishna and Gemara was properly 
ealled Talmud (lomad, to teach), and 
this name was applied to the works 
themselves. A second Gemara(extend- 
ing to four of the six orders) was formed 
in Palestine, about the end of the fourth 
century ; and this, in combination with 
a text of the Mishna, slightly differing 
from the Babylonian, forms the Jeru- 
saicm Talmud. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 89 


The popular influence of this secondary Law is every- 
where visible in the Gospels. It is absolutely 
authoritative, and yet absolutely definite. 
The tradition of the elders claims the obedi- 
ence of the faithful; and “to teach with authority” — with 
independent power—is contrasted with the teaching of 
the scribes." But in itself the recognition of such a code 
marks a crisis of religious feeling. As long as the charter 
of faith is felt to consist in living principles, capable of 
being clothed in ever-varying forms, no change can render 
it obsolete or inadequate. If, however, its terms are once 
fixed by some temporary interpretation, at the first revolu- 
tion of thought or position it is found antiquated and 
insufficient, and that help is sought from tradition which 
really can be found only in the vitality of the original Law. 
To invoke tradition as an independent authority is to 
proclaim that the first Law is dead. 

Between the false freedom of the Sadducee and the 
ritualism of the Pharisee a third course lay 
open. The Essenes sought rest in a mystic 
asceticism which promised freedom by the 
conquest of sense, and true worship in the substitution of 
the spiritual for the material? Like similar reformers in 
every age, they began by asserting the sovereignty of God 
to the exclusion of man’s freedom.’ 


The influence of 
tradition. 


Essenes (asceti- 
cism). 


Jews by race, they 


1 R. Eliezer boasted that he had never 
said anything which he had not heard 
from his teacher. (Steinschneider, a. a. 
O. 364.) 

2The relation in which the three 
parties stand to another is a suffi- 
cient proof that it is unnecessary to 
seek the origin of the Essenes in any 
foreign society. The triple tendency 
ever exists in men, and in times of 
strong religious feeling will find an 
outward expression, in each case par- 
tial and exaggerated, and approaching 
more or less closely to the correspond- 
ing developments of other periods. 


8* 


The Palestinian origin of the Essenes 
is rightly asserted by Hilgenfeld, Die 
Jud. Apok. 245 ff. Alexandrine and 
Pythagorean influences may have modi- 
fied the details of the society in the 
course of time; but the resemblance of 
the Essenes, Therapeute, and Neo- 
Pythagoreans, are explicable on other 
grounds. 

The derivation of the name is un- 


certain. Many deduce it from asa, to 
heal. Wilgenfeld proposes Hazin, Ho- 


zim, seers, Which is supported by Sui- 
das s. v. 


3 Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 5, 9. 


90 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


found their chief bond of union in mutual love, as members 
of a society rather than citizens of anation.! The institution 
of celibacy and the community of goods reduced the rela- 
tions of their domestic life to the simplest form; but each 
detail assumed something of the solemnity of worship. 
Though ascetics, they did not wholly fly from the business 
and society of men, but, living in scattered communities, 
they offered a public testimony to truth, justice, and purity.” 
At the same time, by varied fastings and lustrations, and by 
the study of the sacred books,’ they aspired towards a closer 
communion with the unseen world, and claimed to retain 
among them the gift of prophecy; and “it is rarely,” 
Josephus adds, “that they are found to err in their predic- 
tions.” ὁ 

The school of the Essenes, however different in its final 
shape from that of the Pharisees, yet sprang 
from the same causes. A feeling of distrust 
in life, a faithless unwillingness to tread in 
the old paths, a craving after the protection 
of astern discipline, at the same time a zeal 
prepared for any sacrifice, found satisfaction in the minute- 
ness of an oral law, or in the self-devotion of a religious 
rule? ; 


The Pharisees 
and Essenes con- 
nected by an anx- 
tous legalism, which 
appears in 


1 Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 8; ([Hippol.] 
Philos. ix. 18 ff.). Cf. Antiq. xviii. 2; 
xv. 10, 4. Philo, Quod omnis probus 
liber, §§ 12 f.; Apol. fr. ap. Euseb. Prep. 
Ey. viii. 11; Plin. H. N. iv. v.17. The 
first passage contains the authorities 
for what I have stated, unless a direct 
reference be given. 


2 Hilgenfeld (a. a. O. p. 259 anm.) 
scems to give rightly the sense of Jo- 
seph. B. J. ii. 8, 4: ‘‘ They have not one 
city, but many dwell together in each 
{of their communities]” (as below ἐν 
ἑκάστῃ πόλει TOD τάγματος). The 
words thus become consistent with 
those of Philo and Pliny; but the read- 
ing in Hippolytus, μετοικοῦσι, om. τοῦ 
τάγματος is more favorable to the com- 
mon reading. Some Essenes even re- 


garded marriage as a duty (Joseph. B. 
J. ii. 8, 18). 

3 Βίβλοις tepais.... Kal προφητῶν 
ἀποφϑέγμασιν. The τὰ τῶν παλαίων 
συγγράμματα (§ 6) seem to have in- 
cluded more than the books of Serip- 
ture. (Cf. Hippol. ix. 22.) The Essenes 
had also private books: τὰ τῆς αἱρέσεως 
BiBXla.(5 7). 

4 He quotes three examples: Antiq. 
xv. 10,5; Bell. Jud. i. 8, 5; ii. 7, 3 

5 The Essenes “ reverenced the Law- 
giver next to God,” and their ob- 
servyance of the Sabbath was most seru- 
pulous (Joseph. 1. ¢.). They offered 
sacrifices (ϑυσίας ἐπιτελοῦσι) also ; 
but not at Jerusalem (Joseph. Antiq. 
Xviii. 2). Philo, however, says (p. 457 
M.), ϑεραπευταὶ Seod γεγόνασιν ov 
ζῶα καταϑύοντες .... 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 91 


The Book of Ecclesiasticus, the sole relic of the Palestinian 
literature during the Greek supremacy, is 
marked by the traces of this anxious legal- 
ism.’ Life appears imprisoned in endless 
rules, and the teacher strives to restore its cheerfulness. 
Subjection and humility are among the first virtues.’ 
Knowledge is hidden in proverbs and confined in schools. 
To unriddle dark sayings is the duty of the wise man, 
though it be “a wearisome labor of the mind.” He who 
“sees a man of understanding will get betimes unto him, 
and wear the steps of his door.”? The renown of the seribe 
is of all the most brilliant and the most enduring.* To give 
glory to the priest is coupled with the showing fear 
towards God.* 

The sayings of the later doctors are still more impressed 
with the spirit of dependence. The stored 
mind of the teacher is the source of wisdom, 
and hope seems surest when it can be referred 
to old belief.° “Jose, the son of Joezer, of Zereda, said: 
Let thine house be the gathering-place of the wise. Dust 
thyself with the dust of their feet; and drink their words 
as a thirsty man.” “Joshua, the son of Perachja.... said: 
Get for thyself a teacher; win for thyself a companion.” 
“ Abtalion said: Ye wise men, be careful in your 
discourse, lest ye be ..... cast into a place of bitter 
waters, and the scholars who come after you drink of them 
and die” .... “Hillel said: He who will make himself 
a great name, loses his name; he who increases not, 


Ecclesiasticus, and 
still more in 


the traditional say- 
ings of the doctors. 


1 There can, I think, be no reasona- 
ble doubt that the translation was made 


3 Ecclus. xiii. 2, 6; vi. 36. 


D6.6-0b-e, “ἘΠ 


c. 130 B. c., and that consequently the 
Hebrew original was written about 180 
B. c. Itseems probable that old mate- 
rials were included in the original book, 
but I see nothing which may not be of 
purely Palestinian origin. Cf. Ewald, 
pp. 298 ff. 

2 Kcclus. iv. 7; viii. 1, 8, 14; ix. 13; 
xiii. 2. 


4 Ecclus. xxxviii. 24; 
With this compare the corresponding 
praise of the Law: xxiv. 23—29. 


5 Ecclus. vii. 29—381. At the same time 
the writer takes a wider view than com- 
mon of the extent of God’s providence: 
xviii. 18. 


6 Aboth, 4, 6, 11. 


92 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


decreases; he who learns not, is worthy of death; and he 
who makes use of the Crown [of the law for his own end] 
is lost.”? “Shammai said: Make thy doctrine sure. Speak 
little and do much.” ..... “Gamaliel said: Make to thyself 
a teacher. Relinquish doubtful points; and give not tithes 
often according to conjecture [but with strict accuracy ].” 
For a time, however, the resuscitation of the national 
spirit supplied the loss of the ancient spirit of 
ti. The Hasmo- the prophets. The Maccabzan struggles, 


nean supremacy. 


ae which averted the danger of a general 
and writing. assimilation of the people to their Grecian 

rulers, at the same time gave real life to the 
study of Scripture, and called out new forms of thought 
and writing. Hitherto the Law had concentrated upon 
itself the affection and hope of the Jews. Since the return 
they had been content to find in this the pledge and 
foundation of their national stability, anticipating a future 
which should only confirm and complete the character of 
the present. But now again, in the heat of contest and 
under the immediate consciousness of divine help, they felt 
that the end could not be consummated in a mere “judg- 
ment of the heathen,” but fixed their eyes again upon the 
faded image of Messiah, and saw their fullest hope only 
through the strife and trials which should accompany His 
advent. In the moment of victory they knew that its issue 
was transient. The temporal glory of a conqueror was 
insufficient to satisfy the hopes of the nation, and Simon 
was appointed “ruler and high-priest forever until there 
arose a faithful prophet.”? A corresponding change passed 
over their literature. The last echo of the prophets passed 
away in the Book of Baruch, the writer of which, after 
confession and reproof, describes in the magnificent imagery 
of Isaiah the future triumphs of Jerusalem.’ But now 


1 Aboth, 18, according to the transla- Yet it is προφήτης; not ὃ προφήτης 


tion of Adler: the Latin version of (Johni. 21). 
Surenhusius cannot be correct. 3 It is extremely difficult to determine 
21 Mace. xiv. 41. Cf. iv. 46; ix. 27. the date of the Book of Baruch. Possi- 


THE PREPARATION FOR TIIE GOSPEL. 93 


Revelation succeeded to the place of Prophecy. It seemed 
that the time was come when the veil might be raised from 
the counsels of God; and the seer pointed to all things 


working together for the immediate and final crisis.2 
In addition to the “ Revelations” of Daniel,? two Jewish 


Apoealypses still remain, the Book of Henoch 
and the so-called fourth Book of Esdras, 
which show with singular clearness in what 


a. Apocalypses. 
Henoch. 
4 Esdras. 


way the writings of Daniel served as the foundation for 


later dreams. 


Both exist only in translations, but other- 


wise, as it appears, with few deviations from their original 


form. 


The former is evidently of Eastern, and probably 


of Palestinian origin, while the latter with equal certainty 


may be ascribed to Egypt. 


bly it was written shortly before or after 
the war of liberation; but on some 
accounts 1 should prefer an earlier date. 
The first part (i—iii. 8) is evidently de- 
rived from a Hebrew original; and the 
Greek translator of this part probably 
added the conclusion (iii. 9—end). 

1 A revelation (ἀποκάλυψι:), withits 
specific purpose, its artificial plan, its 
symbolic imagery, its angelic ministra- 
tions, possessing at once the unity of a 
poem and the gorgeousuess of a dream, 
is in itself the last step in the develop- 
ment of prophecy. It is also the most 
attractive form in which hope can be 
offered to a people which has learnt to 
feel even in the deepest afflictions that 
they form the turning-point of the 
world’s history. But revelation differs 
from prophecy not only in the details 
of composition, but also in the point 
from which it contemplates the future, 
or rather the eternal. The Seer takes 
his stand in the future rather than inthe 
present; and while the Prophet seizes on 
the prominent elements of good and eyil 
which he sees around him, as seeds of 
the great ‘age to come,” the Seer is 
filled first with visions of “the last 
days,” and so passes from those to the 
triais of his time, In prophecy the 


Both contain numerous data 


divine and human—intuitive pre- 
science and fragmentary utterance — 
are interwoven in one marvellous web. 
In ‘* revelation” the two elements can 
be contemplated separately, each in its 
most active vigor, distinct predictions 
and elaborate art. As a natural conse- 
quence, “revelation” invites imitation 
as well by its artificiality as by its de- 
finiteness: its form is human, and its 
subject-matter limited and uniform. 
And thus, while few have ventured to 
affect the style of the ancient prophets, 
“ Apocalypses” have rarely been want- 
ing to embody the popular belief of 
those enthusiasts who, in all ages, ante- 
date the final judgment of the world, 
and see in passing events nothing but 
certain signs of its near approach. 


2 This is not the place to enter on the 
question of the date of the Book of 
Daniel in its present form; but I may 
be allowed to remark that the canon- 
icity of the book depends on the judg- 
ment of the Jewish church, and not on 
the date of its composition. If it can 
be demonstrated that it belongs to the 
Maccabean era, it remains just as much 
as before a part of Scripture, and a di- 
vine comment on history, 


94 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


which seem to point to the period of their composition, 
but, at the same time, these are so ambiguous as to have 
received the most various explanations. Without entering 
into the details of the question, it appears most probable 
that the books were written at periods separated by about 
a century — Henoch during the later times of the Greco- 
Syrian empire, and Esdras when the power of Rome was 
everywhere dominant in the East, and Octavian undisputed 
master of the empire." But however this may be, there 
can be no doubt that both Apocalypses represent purely 
Jewish notions; and dealing with the problems which 
Christianity solved, at no great interval from the time when 
the great answer was given, they yield in strange interest 
to few records of antiquity. Even in respect of style, as 
well as of substance, they repay careful study. The spirit 
of God’s ancient people is indeed no longer clothed in the 
utterance of divine prophets, but it is not yet shrouded in 
a dress of idle fables. There are symptoms of increasing 
degeneracy and faithlessness in the later book; but when 
Henoch and Esdras were written, the words of inspiration 
were still powerful to rein the fancy and shape the visions 
of seers, and the wildest imaginings which they contain 
make little approach to the trifling of the Talmudists.’ 

At the same time that prophetic hopes reappeared under 
the form of Revelations, prophetic history 
gave rise to those striking narratives of 
individual life, Tobit and Judith, which 
present the popular ideal of virtue, courage, and patience. 
For these the Book of Esther offered a Scriptural model, as 
that of Daniel for the Apocalypses and Ecclesiastes for the 


b. Didactic nar- 
ratives. 


1 The general character of the book 
at first sight suggests a date shortly 
after the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
this has been adopted by Gfrérer, Wie- 
seler, and Bauer; but the description 
of the ‘‘three heads” (6. xi.) appears 
to point to the times of the Triumvi- 
rates. Cf. Hilgenf. 218 ff. 

2 Compare, for instance, the allusion 


to Leviathan and Behemoth in Henoch 
Ix. 7, with the well-known Talmudic 
legend. The Book of Esdras contains 
the legend in a transition state, vi. 
49—52. 

The Apocalypses of Henoch and Es- 
dras will come under notice more par- 
ticularly in the next chapter. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 95 


Books of Wisdom. Nor can it be unworthy of notice that 
the latest books in the Canon offer a complete parallel in 
theme and manner to the works which followed, while 
they are clearly distinguished from them even by outward 
marks of power and originality. As time advanced imagi- 
nation supplied the place of vision, and fiction was sub- 
stituted for history. 

The Book of Tobit is at once the oldest, the most natural, 
and the most beautiful of the scenes of later 
Jewish life. The legalism of Jerusalem is 
softened down in the regions of the far East, and it would 
be impossible to find a more touching image of holiness 
and piety, according to the current type, than that of the 
Israelite captives of Nineveh. The various ties of family 
are hallowed by the presence of pure love. The righteous- 
ness of works appears in deeds of affection and mercy 
rather than in forms of simple ritual. The power of 
private prayer is exalted by its manifold success. The 
belief in the eternal purposes of God is firm and constant 5 
and hope is proportionately clear and strong. The Book 
of Judith is conceived in a far different strain. 
The ordinary relations of a household are 
changed for the most terrible dangers of war; holiness in 
living for valor in daring. It was written apparently when 
a season of conflict was still impending, and the memory 
of deliverance still fresh. A woman, and she a widow, 
is able to overcome the captain of “the king of all the 
earth” by the power of the God of her fathers. ‘There is 
none that may gainsay her words” or her confidence ; and 
why should Israel tremble before Syria? Faith can yet 
do what faith has done.* 

The first book of the Maccabees is the 1 Maccabees. 
only Palestinian record of the heroic struggle 
which was inspired by such a hope, and is simple, natural, 


Tobit. 


Judith. 


1 The numerous recensions in which which they enjoyed. Cf. Fritzsche, 
the Books of Tobit and Judith—like Eweg. Handb. Einl. Tob. §§ 83—8; Jud 
those of Esther and Daniel—exist, is §§ 2—d. 

a sufficient proof of the wide popularity 


96 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


and accurate, The second book, of African origin, is more 
ambitious, and at times legendary ; but both 
are destitute of that prophetic insight which 
elsewhere makes the chronicles of the Jews a commentary 
on the fulfilment of the Divine counsels. 

The relics of the ante-Christian literature of Palestine 
terminate! with the first Book of Mac- 
cabees; but meanwhile, the Jewish spirit in 
Egypt had not been inactive. The Greek 
Bible had preserved that real union with ancient Israel 
which the disuse of the Temple-service had threatened to 
destroy; and from the first the growth of independence 
and thought was more rapid among the Jews of Alexandria 
than among those of Palestine. The city itself was stamped 
with the impress of no distinct nationality, and controversy 
was inevitable in a place where every system found its 
representatives. But the Law and the prophets still con- 
tinued to guide the philosophy of the Dispersion; and the 
Greek dress in which they were clothed prepared for after 
times the means of expressing intelligibly the principles of 
Christianity. The history of the LXX is obscure and 
perplexed.? So much, however, at least, is clear, that the 
Pentateuch was translated first, no long time after the first 
settlement of the Jews, and that the other books were 
added at various intervals before the middle of the second 
century B. c.* The character of the Alexandrine Church 


2 Maccabees, 


(Ὁ) The Jews in 
Egypt. 
The Septuagint 


3 It is a coincidence too remarkable 
to be left unnoticed, that about the 
same time at which the translation of 


1 The Book of Jubilees perhaps may 
be added, ef. Ch. 1]. 1.(d). The Tar- 
gums were rather the gradual embodi- 


ments of tradition than spontaneous 
literary works. 

2 The work of Hody, De Bibliorum 
Text. Orig., Oxon. 1705, is still the most 
important original investigation of the 
LXX. Frankel (Vorstudien zu der 
LXX., Leipz., 1841) deals well with de- 
tails of language and orthography. 
Grinfield (Apology for the LXX. Lon- 
don, 1850) pleads for the authority of 
the translation, 


the Pentateuch was completed, Man- 
etho, an Egyptian priest, published in 
Greek the first authentic account of the 
Egyptian history and religion, based 
upon the original records. Once again 
Egypt and Israel came in conflict. The 
writings of Callimachus illustrative of 
Greck mythology, and of Aratus on 
natural phenomena, belong to the same 
period. Cf. Carové, Vorhalle des Chris- 
tenthums, Jena, 1851, p. 176. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 97 


has not failed to influence the translation; and, in some 
respects, it is rather an adaptation than a reproduction of 
the original. Even in the Pentateuch the traces of a 
growing refinement are discernible. The most remarkable 
anthropomorphic phrases are softened, and 
“the glory of the Lord” is substituted for Mine" ing onae 
His personal presence. Some preparation, 
at least, is made for the distinction of the Creator 
from Jehovah; and the narrative of the creation is 
moulded according to the current conceptions of a 
primary ideal world and of the constitution of man’s 
nature The variations in the prophets are still more 
remarkable; and it seems difficult to explain the omissions 
which occur, except by the supposition of some intentional 
reserve in publishing the expected glories of Messiah.? 

But the LXX performed a still greater work than that ἢ 
of extending a knowledge of Judaism to the 
heathen world: it wedded Greek language 4764 α theologicat 
to Hebrew thought, the most exact form of 
expression with the most spiritual mode of conception. 
The intellectual vocabulary of the civilized world was 
claimed for religious use, and theology became a science. 
Active speculation followed as a necessary result. The 
gifts and promises of Revelation were compared with the 
faculties and wants of man. ‘Traditional faith and new 
philosophy were examined and combined with various suc- 
cess; and the two events which mark the widest diver- 
gence of the Alexandrine from the Palestinian Jews 
belong to the same generation, and synchro- 
nize with the Maccabean struggles. About (1.6 growth οΓ 
the same time that the temple of Leontop- 
olis was built, Aristobulus, a Jewish follower of Aristotle,’ 


1Cf. Gfrérer, a. a. O. ii. ff. 8 ff. ; Jewish thought at Alexandria, it is im- 


Diehne, ii. i. ff. Frankel, 176 ff. portant to remember that the pursuit 
2 Grinfield, p. 74, with reference to of philosophy was of late introduction, 
Isai. ix. 6. and that the form first current was the 


3 With regard to the development of Peripatetic. Platonism was only a re- 


9 


98 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


gave the first real impulse to that mystical and Hellenizing 
tendency which was afterwards supposed to characterize 
the synagogue and church of Alexandria. The two facts 
mutually explain one another; for the growth of wider 
views of the purposes of the Law, and a more spiritual 
perception of its precepts, might seem to justify the aban- 
donment of the literal Zion. The time was come, it was 
said, when there should “be an altar to the Lord in the 
midst of the land of Egypt,” as the prophet had spoken; 
and when Egypt should be “blessed as God’s people.” 1 
The voice of Paganism itself was now boldly used to 
attest the supremacy of the faith of Israel. 
In his commentary on the books of Moses,? 
Aristobulus introduced a long Orphie quotation, which 
_ must have been cast in ἃ Jewish shape either by himself 
or by some one of his countrymen. The adaptation — for 
it seems to have been an adaptation rather than a forgery 
— was not without excuse, and found abundant parallels. 
Orpheus seemed to stand apart from the later forms of 
polytheism in the depths of a mysterious antiquity, and 
thus the reminiscences of a patriarchal tradition could be 
attributed to him without unnatural violence. 
In like manner the Sibyl occupied an inde- 
pendent position in the religion of Greece and Rome. 
If Orpheus represented the recipient of a primeval reve- 
lation, the Sibyl was an embodiment of the teaching of 
nature.’ The writings of a Jewish or Chaldaic Sibyl con- 
tain probably the earliest fragments among the Sibylline 


Aristobulus. 


The Jewish Sibyl. 


action against skepticism, which springs 
naturally from an exclusive study of 
the abstract or useful sciences. Cf. 
Matter, Hist. de V Ecole Alea. iii. 153 ff. 

1 Tsai. xix. 18, 19, 25. Joseph. Antiq. 
xiii. 8. Cf. Hieron. Comm. in Isai. 
Wels: 

2 BiBAous ἐξηγητικὰς τοῦ Μωῦσέως 
νόμου, Euseb. H. E. vii. 32. The frag- 
ments of Aristobulus are preserved in 
Euseb. Prep. Evang. vii. 13, 14; viii. (8) 
9,10; xiii. 12. The passages quoted by 


Clement of Alexandria recur in Euse- 
bius. The objections to the authen- 
ticity of the fragments are quite insuf- 
ficient. Cf. Gfrérer, Philo, ii. pp. 71 ff; 
Dachne, ii. 78 ff; Ewald, iv. p. 294 n. 


8 Oracula Sibyllina .... recensuit 
.... T.H. Friedlieb, Lipsiz, 1852. Cf. 
Hilgenfeld, Die Judische Apokalyptik, 
Jena, 1857, pp. 53—90. The text, how- 
ever, is still extremely corrupt. 1 haye 
not seen Didot’s ed., Paris, 1856. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 99 


verses; and the very fact of their existence and currency 
is a proof of the growing sympathy between Jew and 
Greek. “God,” it is said, “dwells in all men, the test of 
truth in common light.”! His people are no longer only 
ministers of 15 vengeance, — this office is reserved for 
the “barbarian rule” of Rome,? — but “they shall be guides 
to all men unto life.”* The corruptions of heathendom are 
traced to their first source in the confusion of tongues ; 
and the triumphs of the true faith are pursued till it be- 
comes the religion of the whole earth, till “prophets are 
kings and judges of the world,’ and a heavenly peace is 
restored to nature and man.* In this respect the Sibylline 
writings stand alone as an attempt to embrace all history, 
even in its details, in one great theocratic view, and to 
regard the kingdom of the world as destined to form proyv- 
inces in a future kingdom of God. 

The writings of Philo exhibit the maturity of Alexan- 
drine thought, which was thus early directed 
to subtle allegory and wide hope. They bear 
few marks of originality or order, and must be regarded as 
the epitome and not the source of a system. Their char- 
acteristic is meditation and not thought ; their source the 
accumulated treasures of the past, and not the opening of 
any new mine; their issue eclecticism, and not discovery. 
They may show how far men had advanced, but they open 
no way for future progress. Filled with the most profound 
belief in the divinity of the Jewish law, and not unin- 
structed in the philosophy of Greece, Philo endeavors to 
show the real unity of both, or rather to find in Moses the 
true source of the teaching of Plato and Aristotle. The 
spiritual instinct which had softened down the anthropo- 
morphic language of the Pentateuch in the LXX transla- 
tion, led Philo to explain away the traces of it which still 
remained. The divine Logos, at once the Reason and the 


Philo. 


1 Prol.18. Cf. iii. 262. 4 iii. 781 ; 867 ff. ; 784 ff Cf. ο. il. 
2 iii. 688; 520. pp. 89 ff. 
3 iii. 195, 


100 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


Word of God, is brought into close and manifold connec- 
tion with the world, while Jehovah (τὸ ov, rarely ὁ dv) is 
farther withdrawn from it. With the fullest consciousness 
of the work which the Jews had to discharge as teachers 
of mankind, Philo saw no way in which the work could be 
accomplished but by the perpetuation of the ordinances of 
the Law. He felt that the details of ritual were more than 
symbols of abstract ideas, but he found no antitype to sub- 
stitute in their place. And thus while his spiritualism re- 
tained the restrictions of the old faith, it removed it from 
the reach of the simple. So far from “ preaching a Gospel 
to the poor,” it took away from them the outward pledge 
of it in which they trusted. Its tendency was to exalt 
knowledge in the place of action; its home was in the 
cells of the recluse, and not in the field or the market; its 
truest disciples were visionary Zherapeutce, and not apos- 
tles charged with a gospel for the world, debtors alike to 
Jew and Greek. 

The society of the Therapeutze' was indeed the practical 
corollary of Alexandrianism. ‘The same ten- 
dency which had produced the society of the 
Essenes in Palestine found a new development on the 
borders of Lake Meris. The discipline and occupation of 
these ascetics seemed to offer so clear an image of later 
monastic life that Eusebius claims them as Christians, and 
probably they furnished the model on which the first 
Egyptian communities were framed. They differed from 
the Essenes both in the objects of their pursuit and in the 
austerity of their rule. The examination of the deeper 
symbolism of Scripture was a congenial subject to those 
whose external pesition had long shut them out from the 
literal observance of the Law; and the open corruption of 
the court of the Ptolemies naturally called out the antag- 
onism of an excessive self-denial. The active work which 
formed an essential part of the system of the Essenes, 
found no place in the cells of these Alexandrian devotees, 


The Therapeute. 


1 Philo, De Vita contemplativa, throughout. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 101 


For them the “whole day from sunrise to sunset was spent 
in mental discipline;” their one study was to investigate 
the inner meaning of their national philosophy contained 
in the “holy writings.” The use of hyssop to give flavor 
to the ordinary diet of bread and salt and water was re- 
garded as a delicate luxury. They sought only to appease 
the appetites, and not to gratify them. But the satisfaction 
of bodily wants was often forgotten in the pursuit of wis- 
dom, and at all times “meat and drink” were held unwor- 
thy of the light. In one respect only they shared in com- 
mon pleasures, when on their weekly vigil they recalled in 
sacred hymns and dances the great song of Moses and 
Miriam, adapting the rich resources of Grecian poetry and 
music to their divine themes. 

The Book of Wisdom is the noble expression of a mind 
which might have sought rest and joy in this 
meditative life; nor need it be a matter of 
wonder if the clearest foreshadowing of 
some of the truths of Christianity proceeded from such a 
source, if the attributes of the Divine Wisdom were gath- 
ered to something of a personal shape, and the workings 
of its powers extended to the whole world, by men who 
lived in the contemplation of God’s dealings with mankind. 
Yet it is Wisdom, not. the Word, and much less Messiah, 
which is exalted by the poet as “the creative, preserving, 
guiding power.” To the recluse, far from the rude struggles 
of life, — from “the publicans and sinners” of a suffering 
world, — it might seem enough to paint the glories of wis- 
dom and gaze forever on the picture, but Wisdom, cold 
and partial, could not be the truth for which creation was 
looking. 

For this last growth of Judaism, if the fairest, was still 
premature and fruitless. In its essence it |, ΟΝ 
was the ideal of heathen religion, and the Be Dn 
negation of Christianity, because it raised 
the soul in isolation from the earth, and excluded all re- 
gard to the outer work of life and redemption. It was 


The Book of Wis- 
dom. 


102 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


equally partial in its application and in its scope. It ad- 
dressed only one part of men’s nature, and one class of 
men. It suppressed the instincts of civil and domestic 
society, which Christianity ennobled; it perpetuated the 
barriers which Christianity removed; it abandoned the 
conflict which Christianity carries ont to victory. Yet 
even thus the mystics of Egypt and Palestine maintained 
a practical belief in the necessity of a spiritual faith. 
Their own existence was a sign of “the last times,” but 
they could not interpret it. They witnessed that Judaism 
in its literal acceptation was insufficient to fulfil the desires 
of men; but they could not, like John the Baptist, proclaim 
the near approach of a coming kingdom. 
The spirit of the Law and the Prophets had been em- 
ee bodied in every great typical form. The 
peas Ὁ" Ὡς several phases of partial and independent 
development were now completed. Judaism 
had existed in the face of the most varied nationalities, 
and had gained an elasticity of shape without losing its 
distinctness of principle. But each concrete system which 
was substituted for the faithful anticipation of the Messi- 
anic times, led in the end to disappointment and confusion, 
and the scattered exiles were unable to spiritualize the na- 
tions among whom they sojourned. The hierarchy which 
seemed so full of life in the age of Ezra degenerated into 
a mere sect. The kingdom which had been thought to 
herald the final triumph of the nation ended in a foreign 
usurpation. The alliance with Greek philosophy had led, 
on the one hand, to an epicurean indifference, on the other, 
to an unpractical mysticism. But, meanwhile, the princi- 
ples which lay at the basis of these partial efforts had 
gained a substantive existence, and were silently working 
in the whole people. The truths which had been felt once 
still lived even under the ruins of the systems which had 
been reared upon them. Law, freedom, thought, an intense 
national pride and a world-wide dispersion, a past bright 
with the glories of a Divine Presence, a present lost in 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 103 


humiliation, a future crowded with pictures of certain tri- 
umphs, combined to fashion a people ready to receive and 
propagate a universal Gospel. A missionary nation was 
waiting to be charged with the heavenly commission, and 
a world was unconsciously prepared to welcome it. 

The influences which had moulded the Jewish people 
during the last three centuries before the 
Christian era were not confined within that — Tecorresponding 

Σ change in Heathen- 

narrow circle. The age of Alexander was dom — Ἦ 
the culminating point of Greek thought ‘as cecal Gane 
well as of Greek power. Afterwards the 
scholar occupied the place of the poet, and a period of criti- 
cism followed a period of creation. Aristotle, Pyrrhon, and 
Epicurus brought the last new elements into the system of 
ancient philosophy, and their successors combined, arranged, 
methodized, but opened no new ways of knowledge. The 
same interval which matured the fulness of Jewish hope 
served for the:development of the final issues of Greek wis- 
dom. And yet more than this: as the Jewish 
nationality was broken up by their wide dis- 
persion, so the great tides of Western con- 
quest swept away gradually the barriers by which the world 
had been divided, and colonization followed in the train of 
conquest. The citizen of Rome passed from province to 
province, and, if he borrowed the Greek language, it was 
to assert the Roman supremacy. As a neces- 
sary consequence, the power of paganism 
everywhere gave way. If philosophy had 
undermined its theoretical basis, national intercourse had 
weakened its practical effects. The life of paganism lay 
in its speciality. Pagan belief was in each case the reli- 
gious expression of the particular spot, bound up with its 
character and history. Beyond its native limits its true 
Vitality ceased, and all that remained was a spasmodic ac- 
tion. At the time when the Jew had discovered in his faith 
a germ of universality unknown before the dispersion, 
other religions were proved vain by their narrowness. 


The dissolution of 
nationalities and 


of national reli- 
gions. 


104 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


The gods of Greece had faded away into dim shadows; 
and Rome, when once she left the borders of Italy, had no 
true gods, but admitted to a comprehensive Pantheon the 
deities of each conquered race. Throughout the West 
the religion of the state and the religion of the citizen 
were divorced. Faith was dying, and yet the desire of 
faith was evident: the old temples were deserted, and the 
wildest mysteries found eager votaries. 
But if Greece and Rome failed alike to found a univer- 
sal religion, they showed its possibility. Each 
Meanwhile the in its turn had exerted a power capable of 
Bak loeb es uniting all men by a moral influence. Greece 
Soi "Nad left a universal literature and language 
by seizing the general laws of beauty and 
thought. Rome had founded a universal empire by assert- 
ing with instinctive justice the great principles of right in 
her dependent provinces. The idea of a common human- 
ity, transcending the differences of race and time, was out- 
wardly established by the help of thought and law. 
For the universal powers of Greek language and Roman 
right were not all which heathendom laid at 
And phir the foundation of Christianity. The great 


by analyzing man’s 


powers and in~ work of Greek philosophy had been to dis- 


stincts, prepared 
the way for their tinguish the various elements which were 
nation confused in the popular idea of religion, that 
they might be prepared for a harmonious 
combination. Theology, morality, law, worship, have been 
so long and so clearly apprehended in their separate scopes, 
that it is often forgotten that they were once entangled in 
one complex notion. Step by step the great masters of 
antiquity advanced towards the truth which they divined. 
From the study of the universe they passed to the study 
of man, marking his varied relations, analyzing his distinct 
faculties, and asserting the manifold instincts by which he 
1 Compare the marvellous description quoted from Cicero by Lactantius, 


of the power of universal law (quam JInstit. vi. 8 (Cic. de Rep. iii. 22). 
M. Tullius pene divina voce depinxit) 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 105 


is impelled, while it remained impossible to reconcile them. 
Partial truths obtained their boldest expression, freedom 
and fate, a life purely sensuous and a life purely intellectual, 
man’s body enthroned and imprisoned, Epicureanism and 
Stoicism: such was the final contrast which St. Paul found 
at Athens, and which Christianity harmonized. 

Even in their negative aspect the results of systems, 
varied as the elements of human nature, were 
an important preparation for the Gospel, and εν μά sonoma 
were in themselves an exhaustive commentary ἔρον wien 
on Natural Religion, defining the extent of 
its domain and the nature of its independence.t The 
central principle which should bind all men into one 
family and unite earth to heaven —if heaven indeed were 
—had been sought in nature, in individual reason, in civil 
life, and all that magians, philosophers, statesmen, had 
found were fair shadows, noble and bright at first, but 
which were changed into terrible spectres. The religions 
of the East had sunk into degrading superstitions and 
strange sorceries. The speculations of Greece had been 
directed into countless channels, all leading to blank 
skepticism. The organization of Rome was on the point 
of becoming the mere machinery of a military despotism. 
Everywhere idolatry had wrought out its fearful issues, 
and shameless wickedness had corrupted the streams of 
social life. 

Nor can it be urged with justice that this picture of the 
exhaustion of ancient life ceases to be true if 
we look beyond the limits of the Roman μον (eens 
Empire. The religions of India and Scandi- 3 mh of 
navia contained no element capable of reno- 
vating a world; and as far as it is possible to penetrate 
the darkness in which their beginnings are shrouded, they 
appear to have fostered forms of corruption and barbarism 
more desolating than the paganism of the West. The 


1 Let any one compare, for instance, Arist. de Anima, iii. 5, with 1 Cor. xy. 


106 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


Northmen were gathering strength for a contest yet 
distant: the masses of Eastern Asia were in some sense 
condemned by nature to slavery. In one case civilization 
was not yet possible, in the other it was essentially 
defective. And in estimating the nature of an epoch it is 
sufficient to regard the great centres of civilization. The 
drama of history is ever enacted upon a narrow stage. 
Fresh characters enter and play their parts in due course, 
but till then they have no influence except through others. 
The world has its representative nations to whom its 
fortunes are entrusted, and who justly express its condi- 
tion; and in this sense the Roman Empire at the beginning 
of the Christian era was no less truly than popularly 
identical with the civilized world." 
But in the midst of disappointment and exhaustion hope 
A ees, still lived. There was a vague presentiment 
in the Roman Em- broad that a new period was drawing near; 
ae je and the triumph of material power appeared 
to offer the blessings which Christianity realized. The 
birth of Augustus is said to have been accompanied by 
prodigies which declared him to be the future master of 
the earth, and old legends revived in his person.2. Time 
appeared to fulfil the auguries. The beginnings of the 
empire gave promise of a government able to maintain the 
welfare of the world; and the lull of general peace by 
which it was ushered in was welcomed as the inauguration 
of the new era. The nations were gathered into one, and 
a ruler, such as the world had not seen, claimed them as 
his inheritance. At such a time even outward unity might 
well seem to promise secure happiness. The state, which 
was always the real object of a Roman’s devotion, had 
found a personal embodiment ; and the people were willing 
to coneede to the emperor the divine titles which he 
claimed? The stern image of might was decorated with 


1 Ἢ οἰκουμένη. 8 The climax was reached by Do- 
2 Suet. Oct. c. 94. The whole chapter mitian, whose edicts ran: Dominus et 
is very curious. Deus noster sie fieri jubet (Suet. Domit. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 107 


something of oriental splendor. The verses of the sibyl 
had already passed from Alexandria to Rome; and in 
painting the future the legends of the golden age were 
combined with the prophetic expectations of the East. 
For it was in the East that hope rested. The strange 
traditions of India and China are well known; 
but in their present form they seem to have οὐ Woke 
received something of a Christian coloring, 
though the Jews must have carried with them in their 
dispersion the great outlines of their national faith.’ In 
Palestine these outlines had been filled up in times of 
spiritual trial. The Messianic promises had grown purer 
and clearer by the ordeal of persecution and suffering ; and 
the people which was of all the most despised cherished 
the noblest belief in the time of its distress. The Jew 
knew that a spiritual kingdom would come, of which the 
Roman Empire was but a faint and partial image; and by 
certain signs he felt its near approach. His view might be 
imperfect or distorted, colored by the hope of material 
triumph, or clouded by thoughts of vengeance, yet his eye 
was fixed heavenward, and he stood ready for the conflict. 
The spectacle is one of sublime interest ; and to understand 
the fulness of the Jewish faith it is necessary to go back 
once more and trace the outlines of the Messianic hope as 
it was shaped, through long ages of discipline, after the 
age of the prophets had closed. 


c. 13). Cf. Tac. Ann.i.10. Salvador, p.1l. Schlegel’s Philosophy of His- 
Hist. de la dom. Rom. i. 334 ff. tory, Ὁ. 186 (Eng. trans.). 
1 Cf. Hue’s Christianity in China, i. 


108 THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 


NOTE ON CHAPTER I. 


The following slight synopsis of Jewish literature will serve as a clew 
to much that will be said afterwards. (Alexandrine writers and works 
are distinguished by Italics.) 


3d Cent. B. σ. 


AnT1IGoNnws of Socho. 

The Pentateuch translated into Greek; the other books of 
the Old Testament at various times afterwards. 

Baruch i.—iii. 8. 

The Septuagint completed. 


2d Cent. Β.σ. ARISTOBULUS (fragments). 


ist Cent. B. Cc. 
90 
(?) 


(?) 


ist Cent. P. σ. 


Jesus the son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus); Sepher Ben Sira 
perhaps contains fragments of the original book. 

Tobit. 

The Psalms of Solomon. (Greck: Fabr. Cod. Pseud. V. 
T. i. 914 ff.) 

Additions to Daniel and Esther. 

Judith. 

Baruch, the present recension. 

Jewish Sibylline Oracles. 

The Apocalypse of Henoch. (thiop. trans.) 

Ecclesiasticus translated into Greek. 

The Wisdom of Solomon. 

EZECHIEL (fragments). 

The elder PHILO. 

The Book of Jason, on which 2 Macc. was based. 


i. Maccabees (Greek trans.) 

ii. Maccabees. 

The Letter of Jeremiah. 

iii, Hzra, translation and revision of the Hebrew book. 
iv. Book of Maccabees. 

iv. Ezra (thiop. Ar. Lat. trans.) 

Prayer of Manasses (cf. Fritzsche, Exeg. Hand. 158). 
iii. Maccabees (perhaps later). 

HILLEL. 

SHAMMAI. 


Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch (Zunz, p. 62). 
Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Prophets (id. p. 62). 
GAMALIEL. 

PHILO (ce. 20 B. c.—50 A. σ.). 

The Book of Jubilees (Zthiop. trans.). 

JOSEPHUS (37—c. 100 A. C.). 

AXkIvA (1 122 or 135). 

R. MErIr. 


THE PREPARATION FOR THE GOSPEL. 109 


2d Cent. Ρ. c. xxxii. Middoth of R. Eliezer (Zunz, p. 86). 
Megillath Taanith (fragm.) (id. p. 127). 
Simon Ben Jochai. 
JEHUDA Hannasi, or Hakkodesh, or Rabbi (7 190). 
Elements of the Books Jetzira and Zohar. 


84 Cent. Pp. c. Mishna. 
Sifra debe Rab (on Leviticus), (Rab f 243). 
Sifri debe Rab (on Numbers and Deuteronomy). 
Toseftas (addenda) of R. Chija and R. Hoschaja. 
Seder Olam (Zunz, p. 86). 


4th Cent. Pp. c. Mechilta (on part of Exodus), (Zunz, p. 47). 
Sifri Sutta (fragm. on Numbers), (Zunz, p. 48). 
Malacath Hamashecan (id. p. 87). 
Bereshith Rabba (= last five chapters, Zunz, pp. 174 ff.). 
Jerusalem Gemara (Talmud). 


Sth Cent.p.c. Babylonian Gemara (Talmud). 


498 
10 


CHA Pal ER) 4a. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


Οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς ἡμῖν δὲ διηκόνουν αὐτά. ---Ἰ 51. PETER I 12. 


Tur Book of Genesis connects the promise of Redemp- 


tion with the narrative of the Fall.! 
each crisis in the providential history of the 
world this promise was brought within nar- 
rower limits, and illustrated by fresh details. 


The Biblical doc- 
trine of Messiah in 
the patriarchal, 


At 


After the 


Flood, one of the sons of Noah was especially connected 


1 The various works on the growth 
and form of the Jewish doctrine of the 
Messiah, particularly after the close of 
the prophetic era, seem to me to con- 
tain materials for a history of the doc- 
trine rather than the history itself. 
Schsttgen (Hore Hebraice et Tal- 
mudice, Dresd. 1733-42) has accumu- 
lated a most valuable collection of 
Jewish traditions, but apart from minor 
inconsistencies, he exhibits no critical 
perception whatever of the relative 
value of the authorities which he 
quotes, and often seems to me to mis- 
interpret the real tenor of their tes- 
timony. The writers who have followed 
him have for the most part confirmed 
his errors. Nork (Rabbinische Quellen 
τ. 5. w. Leipzig, 1839), who has collected 
with fair accuracy the sum of Hebrew 
tradition, is most offensive and un- 
just in the use which he makes of it. 
Gfrérer (Das Jahrhundert des Heils, 
Stuttg. 1838) has given the best general 
view of the subject, but he is not free 
from the great faults of Schottgen, 
which found their natural issue in 


Strauss’s Leben Jesu. As a correction 
to these exaggerated pictures of the 
completeness of the Jewish doctrine of 
Messiah the remarks of Br. Bauer 
(Kritik der Evang. Gesch. Leipzig, 1846, 
i. 891 ff.) on the non-existence of any 
such clear doctrine, however exagger- 
ated they may be on the other side, 
are worthy of consideration. Ebrard’s 
answer (Kritik der Evang. Gesch. 
Erlangen, 1850, pp. 651 ff.) seems to me 
partial and inadequate. 

Bertholdt’s Christologia Judeorum 
(Erlang, 1811) possesses no distinctive 
or critical value, and Bp. Blomfield un- 
fortunately relied upon him in his 
Dissertation upon the traditional knowl- 
edge of a promised Redeemer (Cambr. 
1819) for the state of Jewish belief in our 
Lord’s time. Hengstenberg’s Christol- 
ogy (Eng. Tr. Edinb., 1856, vols. i. ii.) 
is rather a collection of criticisms on 
the Messianic passages of the Old Testa- 
ment than a connected view of the doc- 
trine; and the same remark applies to 
Pye Smith’s Scripture Doctrine of Mes- 
siah. Lond., 1837. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 11} 


with the future triumph of God.! Abraham was called, 
and the assurance was given to him that the blessing of the 
earth should spring from his seed. The fortunes of the 
twelve patriarchs were prophetically foreshadowed, and the 
sceptre was assigned to Judah. But up to this point no 
personal trait of a Redeemer was given? Hope was 
turned from mankind generally to a race, a nation, a tribe ; 
but, in accordance with the simplicity of early faith, it was 
left otherwise vague and distant. 

The legislation of Moses contained the next revelation of 
“the great age to come,” and the first descrip- 
tion of the prophet by whom it should be 
inaugurated. The Law from the first exhibited the image 
of a nobler Law; and that which was permanent and 
essential in the relation which it established between God 
and man was transferred to a future Lawgiver. At the 
same time the hope of the world was definitely fixed in 
Palestine by the witness of a heathen seer, The promise 
of Moses was confirmed by the unwilling testimony of 
Balaam, who looked forward to the triumph of the Jewish 
race and the Jewish King, and condemned himself; just 
as, in after-times, Caiaphas admitted the necessity of Christ’s 
sacrifice, and condemned his nation. 

The establishment of the kingdom gave an occasion for 
a further enlargement of the conception of 
Messiah’s person and work, and a narrower 
limitation of the stock from which he was to spring. One 
family was selected from the chosen tribe; and the 
“sceptre” was now reserved for the Son of David. The 
later period of the kingdom saw the gradual unfolding of 
the idea of this future king. Human tyranny served to 
place in clearer light the fulness of Messiah’s love; the 
idolatrous faithlessness of the people, the irresistible per- 


Mosaic, and 


Regal periods, 


1Gen. ix. 27. The rendering of ciat gloriam suam ὥν tabernaculis 


Onkelos, whatever may be thought of Sem. 
its correctness, makes this more clear: 2 The doubtful term Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 
Dilatet Deus Japheth; et habitare fa- 10) cannot be urged against this view. 


Els THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


suasiveness of His teaching; the growing consciousness of 
sin, the efficiency of His priestly intercession. 

The Captivity completed the circle of the Messianic 
hopes, by turning the eyes of the people to 
the divine glory of the coming King, and the 
universal extent of His dominion. The Son of David was 
recognized under the wider title of the Son of Man; and 
His kingdom appeared as the last and mightiest of the 
monarchies of the world. 

In this way the earliest hope of mankind was centred 
in a Person; and the image of the future 
Saviour was drawn from the varied forms in 
which God made Himself known in the history of the 
chosen people. The same discipline which shaped their 
character chastened and ennobled their hopes. The old 
hope gave birth to a new one, and yet survived the trans- 
formation, because it was true, though partial; and at the 
close of the prophetic era three great Messianic types 
remained —the Mosaic, the Prophetic, the Apocalyptic — 
representative in some degree of the three periods of 
inspired teaching; and according as these different types 
were adopted exclusively or variously combined, the faith 
of later generations was dwarfed or enlarged. 

The Apocryphal books, as is well known, contain no 

reference to a personal Saviour. The first 

The Apocryuphat se 

books sitent as to book of Maccabees records the decision of 
aa “the Jews and the priests, that Simon be 
ruler and high-priest forever (εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα) 
till a faithful prophet arise ;” but it seems doubtful whether 
there is any reference in these words to the great Prophet 
of whom Moses spoke, or to the forerunner of Messiah. The 
omission is probably due to the character of the books, and 
not to the absence of the hope, which is clearly expressed 
in other contemporary writings. Similar writings in the 
Old Testament (6. g., Ezra, Nehemiah) contain no Mes- 
sianic predictions; and the Book of Baruch, the only echo 
of the prophets which remained in the Maccabean age, 


In the Captivity. 


General results. 


1 Mace. xiv. 41. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 113 


announces in ancient words the restoration and triumph of 
the chosen people.’ “I will cause them to 
return [saith the Lord] to the land which 1 somenplate a na- 
sware to their fathers, to Abraham, and 
to Isaac, and to Jacob, and they shall be lords over it; and 
I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished ; 
. and 1 will no more move my people Israel from the 
land that I gave them.”? “Take a good heart, O Jerusa- 
lem.’ He that named thee shall comfort thee. Wretched 
are they that afflicted thee, and rejoiced over thy fall. 
Wretched are the cities to which thy children were in 
bondage. Wretched is the land that received thy sons. 
Ris hs For fire shall come upon her from the Eternal for 
Jong days, and she shall be inhabited by evil spirits for the 
longer time. Look round to the East, O Jerusalem, and 
behold the joy which is coming to thee from the Lord. 
Behold thy sons are coming, whom thou sentest forth : they 
are coming, gathered together from the East to the West 


boy) 
by the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory 
συ C00 ae aa For God shall show thy brightness to 
every country under heaven...... They went out from 


thee on foot, led by enemies, but God is leading them to 
thee, lifted up on high with glory, as children of the king- 
dom.”* The same ideas recur in the Book of Tobit. The 
God who scattered them shall gather His people together 
again, “and bring them to their own land. And they 
shall build His house, not such as was the former house, 
until the seasons of the age (καιροὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος) be fulfilled ;° 
and afterwards they shall return from the places of their 
captivity, and build Jerusalem gloriously.”°>..... “ Je- 
rusalem shall be built with sapphire and emerald,’ and her 
walls with precious stone, and her towers and battlements 


1 But the language used of the Law 4 The other reading, ὡς ϑρόνον Bact- 
as eternal and life-giving (iv. 1), and in Aeias» gives the same general sense, but 
an especial sense a revelation of God’s the metaphor is very harsh. 
person (iii. 37 f.), is particularly worthy 5 Quoadusque repleatur tempus male- 
of notice. dictionum. Vet. Lat. 

2 ii. 84, 35. 3 iy. 30 ff. 6 xiy. 5. 7 xiii. 9 ff. 

10* 


114 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


in pure gold; and the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved 
with beryl, and carbuncle, and stone of Ophir.” ..... 
“ And all nations shall turn truly to fear the Lord God, and 
bury their idols; and all nations shall bless the Lord; and 
His people shall confess God, and the Lord shall exalt His 
people; and all who love the Lord God in truth and 
righteousness shall rejoice, doing mercy to our brethren.” 
But these wide anticipations of coming glory appear 
vague and incomplete when compared with 

The Messianic the clear-drawn visions of that Apocalyptic 


idea further de- 


ees ot te literature? in which we must next trace the 
ature. progress of the Messianic faith. 

The earliest fragments of the Sibylline 
writings” which belong to the beginning of the Maccabean 
ea, period, complete the picture of the national 
Oracles. triumph by the recognition of the great Con- 
oe ace queror When the need of man is sorest, 
and pestilence and war are spread over the world; when 
king seizes king, and nation ravages nation, and rulers fly, 
and the earth is changed, and a barbarian power desolates 
all Greece; when the earth is unsown and unploughed, 
covered with the unburied dead,*—then it is said,’ “God 
shall send from the sun a King, who shall cause every land 
to cease from evil war, slaying some, and fulfilling a faith- 
ful covenant with others. Nor shall He do all this by His 
own counsels, but obeying the high decrees of the mighty 
God. Then, again, the people of the mighty God shall be 
laden with noble wealth, with gold and silver, and with 
array of purple; and the earth shall bring forth to perfec- 
tion, and the sea teeming with blessings. .... But, again, 
the kings of the Gentiles with gathered might shall assail 
this land, bringing fate upon themselves; for they shall 


1 Cf. p. 98, n. 1. the Apocalyptic writings are by Liicke 

2 Lib. iii. with the exception of vv. (Versuch einer vollstandigen Einleitung 
1—96, 818—828, and one or two smaller in die Offenbarung des Johannes, 2te 
interpolations. Cf. Hilgenfeld,a.a.O. Aufl. Bonn, 1852), and Hilgenfeld (Die 
63 ff. Gfrérer, Philo, u. s. w. ii. 121 ff. Judische Apokalyptik, Jena, 1857). 

3 The best general introductions to 4 Vy. 682—651. 5 Vy. 652 ff 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 145 


wish to ravage the fold of the mighty God, and to destroy 
the noblest men..... But swords of fire shall fall from 
heaven, and on earth great flames shall come..... and 
every soul of man and every sea shall shudder before the 
face of the Immortal..... And then shall [the foes of His 
people] recognize the Immortal God, who brings these 
judgments to pass, and there shall be wailing and crying 
over the boundless earth, as men perish..... But the sons 
of the mighty God! around His temple all shall live in 
quiet..... for the Immortal is their defender, and the hand 
of the Holy One. And then shall all the islands and cities 
say: How does the Immortal love these men, for all things 
strive with them and help them..... Come, let us all fall on 
the ground and entreat the Immortal King..... Let us 
send to His temple, .... and all heed the Law of the Most 
High God..... And then? shall God raise up a kingdom for- 
ever (εἰς αἰῶνας) over all men..... And from every land 
men shall bear frankincense and gifts to the house of God. 
.... And prophets of the mighty God shall take away the 
sword, for they shall be judges of mortals and righteous 
kings. Rejoice, then, O Virgin, and exult; for to thee 
hath He given gladness forever who created heaven and 
earth. In thee [O Sion] shall He dwell; and for thee 
shall He be an Immortal Light.” * 

But even in these oracles the glory of the king is lost 
in the glory of the nation. The house of 

: The defects of 

David is forgotten in the recollection of the {πο sisyttine con- 
theocracy! The permanent establishment of "°°" 
the Law as the rule of the whole earth is the object of 
highest hope,’ or second only to that final consummation 
of the world, when a fiery flood shall destroy all that is 


1 Vy. 702 ff. appears to be to Zerubbabel; and the 

2 Vv. 766 ff. king whom “God shall send from 

8 The remainder of this passage (787— heaven, who shall judge each man in 
794) is a close imitation of Is. xi. 6—8. blood and flash of fire (vv. 286-7), 
Cf. 367—880. though he appears with the attributes 

4 The only reference to the family of of Messiah, can be no other than Cyrus. 
Dayid is yy. 288-90, but the reference 5 Cf. vv. 578 if. 


116 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAI. 


corrupt and perishable in man and nature, and leave the 
good in eternal purity. “The people,” it is said, “shall be 
guides of life to all mortals;!” but there is no mention of 
a spiritual covenant. There are no glimpses of a Gospel 
or of an Incarnation. The blessings of the future are 
drawn after the types in Deuteronomy, and the plagues 
which are denounced against the wicked recall the scenes 
of the Exodus and the conquest of Palestine. 

Still the belief in a Messiah is recognized, and the glori- 
ous future is connected with His advent. 
Nor is His descent from the Sun — the seat 
of the empire of light—the only sign of His 
divine nature. In a later fragment, which dates from the 
time of the last triumvirate, Messiah appears in contrast 
with Beliar, the great manifestation of the power of evil? 
“ A holy king shall come to hold the sceptre of every land, 
for all ages, as time hastes on..... But forth from the peo- 
ple of Sebaste® shall Beliar come afterwards; and he shall 
plant the lofty mountains [in the valleys], and stay the sea, 
the mighty fiery sun, and the bright moon, and wake the 
dead, and perform many signs among men; but they shall 
not bring their promised end in him, but they shall be 
deceptive, and in truth they shall deceive many men 
(uéporas), both faithful and chosen Hebrews, and also other 
lawless men, who have not yet heard the word of God. 
But when the threats of the mighty God draw near, a 
flaming power shall come in a billowy flood (8? οἴδματος) 
upon the earth, and consume Beliar and all the haughty 
men who placed their trust in him. .... God shall roll the 
heaven as a book is rolled, and the whole spangled firma- 
ment shall fall on the glorious earth and ocean. A torrent 
of devouring fire shall flow unwearied, and consume the 
land, and consume the sea, and the firmament of heaven, 
and days; and creation itself it shall melt together, and 


Its further en- 
largement. 


1 Ver. 195. 2 Vv. 49 ff. Magus, Sebaste = Samaria? or to Nero); 
3 This name must have been inserted for it could not have been used of the 
afterwards (with a reference to Simon Romans before the death of Antony. 


THE JEWISIL DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 11¥ 


refine it and purify it (és καϑαρὸν διαλέξει). And no longer 
shall the laughing globes of the [heavenly] lights [roll on. 
There shall be] no night, no dawn, no many days of care, 
no spring, no summer, no winter, no autumn. And then 
shall the judgment of the mighty God come in the midst 
of the mighty age when all these things come to pass.”* 
Shortly after the first collection of Sibylline oracles was 
formed at Alexandria, the hopes of the Pales- 
tinian Jews were raised to the highest pitch 
by the successes of John Hyrcanus, only to 
be lost again in the rising conflict of sects, 
and the weakness and crimes of his successors. These al- 
ternations of joy and sorrow found their expression in the 
Apocalypse of Henoch.2, No apocryphal book is more re- 
markable for eloquence and poetic vigor; and the range 
of subjects which it includes is as noble as its style. In 
its present form, the book aims at little less than a compre- 
hensive vindication of the action of Providence, both in 
the physical and in the moral world. At one time it en- 
courages men quailing before outward enemies; at another, 
it rebukes a people torn by inward divisions: now it offers 
an explanation of the mysteries of creation; and now it 
seeks the type of present dangers in the catastrophe of 
primeval history. It is probable that these different parts 
owe their origin to distinct authors, and that they were 
interwoven into the present book by a later compiler. But 
the distinction of the constituent elements is of compara- 
tively little importance at present, since the book assumed 
a certain unity during its last revision, and offers a gen- 


(b) The Book of 
Henoch. 


~ 107 B. c. 


1 It is sufficient to refer generally to 
Matthew xxiv., 2 Thess. ii., Apoc. xx., 
for striking parallels to many of the 
thoughts in this passage. 

2 Liber Henoch, Aihiopice. <A. Dill- 
mann, Lipsizw, 1851. Das Buch Henoch. 
Ubersetzt und erklart von Dr. A. Dill- 
mann, Leipzig, 1833. These two edi- 
tions supersede those of Bishop Lau- 


rence: The Book of Enoch, ete:, Oxford, 
1821, 33,38, and Libri Enoch versio 
Ethiopica, Oxon., 1888. Where the 
difference appeared to require notice I 
have given Laurence’s rendering in 
brackets [L.] or in the notes. The edi- 
tions of Hoffmann and Gfrorer have no 
independent value. Cf. Dilim. Hinleit. 
pp. lvii. ff. 


118 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


erally consistent view of the office of Messiah. But while 
the whole book is thus impressed with a certain stamp 
of uniformity, the central portion, round which the other 
prophecies are grouped, glows beyond the other parts with 
a spiritual fervor, pure, intense, and passionate. If the 
deeper mysticism and colder speculations of the Apocrypha 
leave no place for the doctrine of Messiah; if the priestly 
and prophetic office of the great king was merged by the 
Sibyl in the prophetic office of the nation, in Henoch the 
Advent of Messiah is contemplated with a joyful and cer- 
tain hope. The might and tyranny of heathen oppressors 
serve only to suggest the certain retribution and just ven- 
geance which hangs over them; the victories which have 
been gained by the people of God are but a prelude to 
wider conquests. A judgment is reserved for sinners; a 
triumph is prepared for the righteous: and Messiah is the 
divine instrument of this twofold issue. Such is the mes- 
sage of “faith and truth”? which the voice of the ancient 
patriarch proclaims to a people conscious of their heay- 


1 Ewald, in an admirable essay on 
the book (Ueber d. A?thiop. B. Henoch 
Entstehung, Sinn αι. Zusammensetz. 
Transact. of the Royal Soc. of Géttin- 
gen, 1856, pp. 107 ff.), supposes that it 
consists of fragments of four books. 

i. The first book, the original proph- 
ecy, written in a period of outward 
trouble and danger, during the first 
years of John Hyrcanus, c. B. c. 144, 
represented by capp. xxxXvii—Ixxi. 
with some interpretations. 

ii. The second book, written a few 
years later, when prosperity had given 
rise to internal schisms, c. B. Ο. 135, of 
which fragments occur i.—yv.; vi. 1, 2; 
viii. 4; ix. 1—6, 8—11; x>4—10, 12; xi. 
2; xii.—xvi.; Ixxxi. 1—4; Ixxxiv.; xci. 
4; ev. 

iii. The third book, written a little 
later, ο. B. c. 128, philosophical in char- 
acter, as the first is poetical and the 
second rhetorical. Fragments of this 


occur, XX.—XXXVi.; ]xxii.—]xxxii. ; 
Ixxxiii. 1—9; Ixxxv.—xc; evi.—[eviii.] 

iy. The Book of Noah, occurring in 
scattered fragments, vi. 8—8; ix. 7; x. 
1—3, 11; xi. 22; Ixix. 2. ; xvii —xix.; 
xxxix. 1, 2%; Ix. Ὁ 24 £.; Ixiv— 
Ixix. 16. This book was written some 
years after the last. 

The whole book of Henoch assumed 
its present shape, according to Ewald, 
during the first half of the century 
before Christ. I have given these de- 
tails, not because I think it possible to 
accept a result so complicated, but be- 
cause the divisions throw considerable 
light upon the internal structure of the 
book. Other theories of its composi- 
tion may be seen in Hilgenfeld, a. a. O. 
pp. 95 ff. Perhaps all that can be 
affirmed with certainty is the later 
origin of the Noachian portions. 


2 Cf. Dillm. p. 82; Ewald, p. 128. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 119 


enly mission and fresh from brilliant struggles, and yet 
trembling and divided." 

The first introduction of the Messianic subject is marked 
by several peculiarities, which at once call 
attention to its importance. The Vision 
which contains the most complete portrait- 
ure of the coming Kingdom is emphatically the Vision 
of Wisdom; and this “ beginning of Wisdom” is addressed 
to all “the dwellers on the earth, both those of old time, 
and those who shall come after.” Even God Himself is 
addressed by a new title in connection with these Messi- 
anic revelations, as “the Lord of Spirits,” the Supreme Sov- 
ereign who establishes, by His spiritual hosts, order and 
righteousness in the various realms of creation. 

The vividness of the prophecy is already foreshadowed 
by the form which it assumes. In one pas- 
sage the Seer is represented as approaching 
the Divine presence, and contemplating the 
person of Messiah. “I saw,” he says, “in heaven One, 
Ancient of days,? and His head was white as wool; and 
with Him was another, whose countenance was as the ap- 
pearance of a man, and full of grace, like to one of the 
holy Angels. And I asked one of the Angels, who went 
with me and showed me all hidden things, of that Son of 
Man, who He was, and whence He was, and wherefore He 
went with the Ancient of days? And he answered me and 
spake to me: This is the Son of Man, to whom righteous- 
ness belongeth, with whom righteousness dwelleth (hath 
dwelt, L.), and who revealeth all the treasures of that 


The introduction 
of the Messianic 
doctrine in Henoch. 


The general con- 
ception. 


1In giving a general view of the 
Messianic descriptions of Henoch, I 
have quoted the book in its final shape, 
not only because it is most convenient 
to do so, but because the book was 
current in this form at the Christian 
era, for the arguments of Hoffmann 
(Schriftb. i. 871) in favor of a later 
origin are quite unsatisfactory. It will 
be seen that the great mass belongs to 


Ewald’s “ First Book.” Inthe‘ Second 
Book” the righteousness of Messiah is 
His characteristic attribute, just as the 
people of God are described as ‘the 
righteous’? more usually than “ the 
elect.” 


2 Dillm., cin Haupt der Tage, betagtes 
Haupt. The allusion to Dan. yii. 18, 
justifies the translation. 


120 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAIIL. 


which is concealed, because the Lord of Spirits hath 
chosen Him; whose lot before the Lord of Spirits hath 
surpassed all through His uprightness forever (in everlast- 
ing righteousness, L.). And this Son of Man whom thou 
hast seen shall raise the kings and the mighty men from 
their beds, and the powerful even from their thrones; and 
shall unloose the bands of the powerful [with which they 
bind God’s people], and break in pieces the teeth of sinners. 
And He shall hurl the kings from their thrones and their 
kingdoms, because they magnify Him not, nor praise Him, 
nor acknowledge with thankfulness whence the kingdom 
is lent to them..... And they shall be driven from the 
dwellings of the assembly of His Church, and of the faith- 
file) tet ee 
The attributes of majesty and humanity, of dominion 
jessintts cnarae. 204 righteousness, with which Messias is 
ter antdivineatei- here clothed, continually reiippear throughout 
butes. we ὃ ᾿ Ξ 
the Visions, and the manifestation of these in 
the deliverance of the faithful and the final retribution of 
the wicked, forms the general object of His work. With- 
out adding any new element to the fulness of the old 
prophets, the writer of Henoch endeavors to combine into 
one grand image the scattered traits in which they had 
foretold the working of their great king; and if he only 
dwells on the resistless might and certain triumph which 
should attend His advent, he differs from later zealots in 
retaining the essential character of superhuman glory with 
which Daniel had portrayed Him. He appears in several 
places to recognize the preéxistence of Messiah, while, at 
the same time, he describes Him as very man; and, though 
the interpretation of these passages has been questioned,’ 
the clearness with which the eternal predestination of Mes- 
siah, and the intimate relation in which He stands at once 
to God and to the whole world of spirits, is one of the 
most conspicuous points in the teaching of the book, 


Le. xlyvi. 2 Wrongly, I believe. Cf. Laurence, Prel. Diss. li. f 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MU@SSIAH. 121 


“Before the sun and the signs of heaven were created, 
before the stars were made, the name [of the Son of Man] 
was named (invoked, L.) before the Lord of Spirits.” 
“He was chosen and hidden in the sight of God before the 
world was created, and He shall be to eternity in His 
sight.”? At the day of His appearance, “the kings and 
mighty men and dwellers on the earth shall laud and 
praise and magnify Him who ruleth over all, who was hid- 
den. For aforetime He, the Son of Man, was hidden, 
whom the Most High kept in the presence of His power, 
and revealed to the elect.”* And thus it is said that 
Henoch, in his life time, was “translated from among the 
dwellers on the earth to that Son of Man, to the Lord of 
Spirits.” 4 Even before His manifestation, the Messias was 
the joy of men and angels; for “the Wisdom of the Lord 
of Spirits revealed Him to the Holy and the Righteous... 
for in His name are they delivered, and He is the avenger 
of their life.”> And Henoch heard “the voice of the 
Angel Rufhel praise the Elect One and the elect people” 
before the throne of the majesty of God. The very stars 
and elements and powers of nature “rejoiced greatly, prais- 
ing and magnifying [God], because that to them was 
revealed the name of that Son of Man.”? 


inhabitants of the earth.” Cf. Dillm. 
l.c. Ewald (p. 124 n) gives another 


1 Compare the Rabbinical saying, 
that ‘‘the name of Messiah existed be- 


fore the foundation of the world.” 

2Cap. xlviii. 3,6. ‘‘The elect and 
the concealed one existed in His pres- 
ence before the world was created and 
forever.” (Laur.) Ε 

8 Cap. Ixil. 6, 7; ο. Ixi. 10, Laur. 

4Cap.Ixx.1. This difficult passage, 
which is the clearest testimony to the 
preéxistence of Messiah, belongs, ac- 
cording to Dillmann, to the ‘‘ Noachian” 
additions to the original book, and so 
dates from the first century B. c.(Dillm. 
pp. xl. 1.). Laurence’s translation is 
quite different: ‘‘ After this the name 
of the Son of Man, living with the 
Lord of Spirits, was exalted by the 


translation: ‘“ Afterwards was Henoch 
celebrated among men as liying with 
Messias, and with God.” .... 

5 Cap. xlviii. 7. ‘He revealed the 
wisdom.” . . . .— Laur, 

6 Cap. xl. 5, 9. 

7 Cap. 1xix. 26 (Iviii. 88, Laur.) From 
this passage it appears natural to con- 
clude that the unutterable name — “‘the 
oath * —by which the whole world was 
ruled (c. lxix. 14 ff.) was the name of 
Messiah. Cf. Apoc. ii. 17. According 
to the present text, the title “‘ Lord of 
Spirits” is once applied to Messiah, 
ec. lxii. 2, but there is probably some 
corruption. 


11 


122 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


In contrast with this Divine aspect of Messiah are the 
many titles which declare His humanity and 
essential subordination to God. He is “the 
Righteous One,”! chosen by God for his uprightness; “the 
Elect One”? “according to God’s good pleasure;” “the 
Anointed,” ὁ “the Son of Man,” “the Son of woman,” 4 
while still also “the Son of God.”® And though these 
titles belong in a peculiar sense to Messiah, as the type 
and head of His Church, they are extended also to all be- 
lievers, who are called “the righteous,” “the elect,” “the 
children of God.” Even the form under which Messiah 
was first described is applied in a lower scale to Henoch, 
who is addressed by an angel as “the Son of Man who is 
born to righteousness, and on whom righteousness dwell- 
eth, and whom the righteousness of the Ancient of days 
leaves not.”® In the imagery of one of the Visions, Mes- 
sias is “born as a white bullock,”’ and all the beasts of the 
field, and all the birds of the air, feared Him, and prayed 
to Him always. “And I looked,” the Seer continues, “till 
all their races were changed, and they all became white 
bullocks.”.... And when the judgment is accomplished, 
it is said: “The whole host of heaven and all the Saints 
who are above, and the host of God, the Cherubim and 
Seraphim and Ophanim, and all the angels of might, and 
all the angels of dominion, and the lect One, and the 
other powers which are on the land above the water, shall 
ery on that day, and with one voice exalt and praise and 
Jaud and magnify [God] in the spirit of faith, in the spirit 
of wisdom and of patience, and in the spirit of mercy, and 
in the spirit of right and of peace, and in the spirit of 


His humanity. 


1 Capp. xxxviii. 2; liii. 6. 5 Cap. cy. 2 (only). 
2 Cap. xlv. 8, 4, ete. This is the most 
usual title of Messiah. 6 Cap. xxi. 14 (Ixx. 17, Laur.). Cf. 
3 Capp. xlviii. 10; lii. 4 (only). c. Ix. 10. 
4 Cap. Ixii. 5 (only). The form of the 
title appears to be suggested by the con- 7 (Ixxxix. 45, Laur.). By this figure 


text. There is, I believe, no reference He is likened to the Patriarchs. Cf. 
to Gen. iii. 15. Dillm. p. 286. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 123 


goodness, and shall all say with one voice, Praise be to 
Him, and praised be the name of the Lord of Spirits, for- 
ever and ever.” ! 

But while Messiah is thus represented as man, and, per- 
haps, classed among created things, He stands 
far above all in the greatness of His gifts. 
Not only is He placed by God on the throne of His maj- 
esty to execute judgment in the world, but “wisdom is 
poured out like water, and there is no end of His majesty. 
He is mighty in all the secrets of righteousness, and un- 
righteousness passes away before Him like a shadow... . 
In Him dwells the spirit of wisdom, and the spirit of Tim 
who giveth knowledge (the spirit of intellectual wisdom, 
L.), and the spirit of teaching and power, and the spirit 
of those who have fallen asleep in righteousness. And He 
shall judge the hidden things; and no man shall be able to 
utter an idle speech before Him, for He is chosen before the 
face of the Lord of Spirits according to His good pleasure.”? 

The effect of the manifestation of Messias follows im- 
mediately from His character. “In those 
days shall a change be wrought for the holy 
and the elect; the light of day shall dwell 
upon them, and majesty and honor shall turn to them. 
And on the day of distress ruin shall be heaped upon sin- 
ners. .... And in those days the earth shall give back 
that which has been entrusted to it, and the kingdom of 
death shall give back that which has been entrusted to it, 
and Hell (Scheol) shall give back that which it owes. And 
| Messias] shall choose the righteous and holy among them, 
for the day is come that they should be delivered.” * 


Tis excellent gifts. 


The effect of His 
COMING» 


1 Cap.1xi.10,11. From the position that day ” (Ix. 18); yet he defends it as 
in which the words “ the Elect” occur, containing ‘‘an obvious reference to 
and from a comparison of the context, Gen. i. 1,’ and ‘‘ the declaration of a 
a question may perhaps arise whether .... precise and distinct Trinity of 
the reading is correct, Laurence’s YTersons under the supreme appellation 
translation is not yery probable: ‘And of God and Lord.” Prel, Diss. Ὁ. lii. 
all the angels of the Lord, namely of 2 Cap. xlix. (6. xlviii, Laur.) 
the Elect one, and of the other Power, 8 Capp. 1. li. The doctrine of the 
who was upon earth over the water on resurrection is again described with 


124 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. ~~ ~ 

But the final establishment of Messiah’s kingdom? is 
preceded by a time of devastation and con- 
quest on earth —a “period of the sword.” 
“T saw, and a great sword was given to the 
sheep — the long oppressed people of God; then the sheep 
went forth against the beasts of the field, — their ancient 
oppressors, — and all the beasts and the fowls of heaven 
fled before their face,”? and turned too late to prayer and 
repentance.2 This occupies the eighth of the ten “ weeks” 
into which the history of the world is divided; “and the 
sword is given that judgment and righteousness might be 
executed on them who act with violence, and the sinners 
given over into the hands of the righteous.’* “ And the 
hearts of the saints were full of joy that the number of 
righteousness was fulfilled, and the prayer of the righteous 


The wars which 
precede it; and 


singular force and detail, c. Ixi. 5, 6. 
One point is particularly deserving of 
notice: in speaking of the future state 
of the wicked, the writer always speaks 
of their spirits only (Dillm. p. 165). 
The reiinion with the body — the condi- 
tion of sharing Messiah’s kingdom — is 
reserved for the righteous. Cf. Hom. 
Odyss. xi. 487 ff.; Plato, Resp. 836 c. 
The same doctrine occupies a prom- 
inent place in the Mormonite system. 
Spencer's Letters, pp. 154 ff. 

1 The mutual relation of the different 
parts of the “end of the world” is 
naturally obscure, and the obscurity is 
increased by much confusion both in 
the language and in the text of the book. 
The gencral interpretation which 1 have 
given appears to be intelligible and con- 
sistent; but two difficulties remain, as 
to the times of the appearance of Mes- 
siah, and of the great judgment. In 
c. xc. 87, the birth of ‘the white bul- 
lock, with great horns” (Messiah) is 
described as taking place after the 
period of the sword, and before the 
great conversion of the world (§ 85), 
though all men were already collected 
at the Holy City (i.e. in the ninth 
week), and this, I believe, is the opinion 


of the writer. And, correspondingly, 
it appears to be his intention to place 
the great judgment at the end of the 
tenth week, after the peaceful reign 
over the converted werld, though in 
ο. xc. 20—27 it is described immediately 
after the period of the sword, probably 
as being its final consummation and 
spiritual antitype (cf. xlvii. 4; xviii. 2). 
The character of Messiah as the resist- 
less and righteous Judge requires that 
all judgments, even the period of the 
sword (c. xlviii. 4 1f.), should ultimately 
be referred to Him. The clearer state- 
ments must interpret the more general. 


2 Cap. xc. 19(Ixxxix. 27, Laur.). But 
even the most terrible calamities are 
regarded as a judgment on sinners 
(and not a trial for the eiect, ef. cap. 
c. 1 5): 

8 Capp. Ixiii, xxxviii. 6. 

4 Cap. xci. 12 (xeii. 18, 14, Laur.), ef. 
ο. xxxviii.5. Even in this chapter the 
different stages of the great end of all 
things seem to be distinguished: ‘the 
period of the sword,” § 4—6; “the rey- 
elation of the secrets of the righteous,” 
§8; “the manifestation of Messiah,” 
§ 2. See, also, c. xevili. 12; ΧΟΥΪ. 1. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 125 


heard, and the blood of the righteous required before the 
Lord of Spirits.”? At the end of this week 
the people of God have reared houses for 
themselves “in their own pleasant land,” and built “a 
new temple for the great King,” “greater and nobler than 
the first,” and “all the sheep are therein.” “ And in that 
place I saw a fountain of righteousness which was in- 
exhaustible; many fountains of wisdom encircled it, and 
all that were thirsty drank thereof, and were full of wis- 
dom, and had their dwelling with the holy and righteous 
and elect.”? In the ninth week “the righteous judgment 
is rendered,....and all men look to the way of upright- 
ness;” “and all the beasts of the field and all the fowls 
of heaven gathered themselves to the house [of God], and 
the Lord of the sheep had great joy that they were all 
good and returned to His house. And I looked till the 
sheep laid down the sword that was given to them, and 
brought it back to His house, and it was sealed before the 
face of the Lord. ... And the eyes of all were opened 
that they should see that which is good (the good one, L.), 
and there was not one among them who saw not.”*® And 
after this, at the end of the tenth week, shall be the eternal 
judgment over the angels. .... « And the former heaven 
shall vanish and pass away, and a new heaven shall appear, 
and all the powers of heaven shall give light forever 
sevenfold. And after that shall be many weeks without 
number in goodness and righteousness, and sin shall be no 
more named forever and ever.”* “And it shall come to 
pass in these days that the elect and holy children [of God, 
the Angels] shall descend from the heights of heaven, and 
join their Lord with the children of men.”*? “ And from 
henceforth there will be nothing that corrupts (transitory, 
Dillm.) any more, for He, the Son of Man, has appeared, 
and sits upon the throne of His majesty, and all evil shall 


its final blessedness. 


1 Cap. xlvii. 4. 4 Cap. xci. 17 (xcii. 16, Laur.) Cf. 
2 Cap. xlviii. 1. ο: xcii. 4, 5. 
8 Cap. xc. 33 f. 5 Cap. xxxix.1. Cf. Dillm. 1. c. 


1" 


126 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 

vanish and pass away before His face.”!... “And the 
chosen One shall dwell among His chosen people.”? “And 
they shall be arrayed in the robe of life;... and the Lord 


Apoc. iii. 20. 


of Spirits shall dwell over them, and they 
shall dwell with that Son of Man, and eat 
with Him, and lie down and rise up forever and ever. 


8.) 4 


The interval between the dates of the Books of Henoch 
and Esdras’ was one of humiliation and trial 


(c) The Fourth 
(second) Book of 
Esdras, 


for the faithful Jew. 


The kingdoms of the 


world grew stronger, and he was gradually 


brought again under their dominion. 


The very forms in 


which the revelations are clothed furnish apt symbols of 
the times in which they were respectively written, and of 


1 Cap. Ixix. 29. 

2 Cap. xiv. 4. 

3 Cap. Ixii. 16, 14. 

4 The traces of ‘‘mysticism’’ in the 
Book of Enoch are very rare; but they 
tend to show that the personification 
of Wisdom and the Word was entirely 
unconnected with the doctrine of Mes- 
siah. ‘‘ Wisdom found no place where 
she should dwell; then had she a dwell- 
ing in heaven. Wisdom came to dwell 
among the children of men, and found 
no dwelling-place ; then Wisdom re- 
turned to her place, and took up her 
abode among the angels. And unright- 
eousness (Folly) came forth from her 
abode [the indefiniteness of the phrase 
is worthy of notice]: she found those 
whom she sought not and dwelt among 
them, [welcomed] as the rain in the 
wilderness, and as the dew on the 
thirsty land” (6. ΧΙ). In another 
place it is said: ‘‘The Righteous One 
[Messiah] shall arise from sleep, and 
Wisdom shall arise and be given to 
them [the elect]” (c. xci. 10). Once 
more: “ὙΠΟ wisdom of the Lord of 
Spirits revealed [the Son of Man] to 
the holy and the righteous ” (c. xlyiii.7). 
Again, Henoch is described as bidding 
his son collect all his household to- 
gether, ‘‘for,” he says,. “the Word 
calls me, and the Spirit is poured out 


upon me.” .... (xci. 1). So, again, 
ο. xiv. 24: “The Lord called me and 
spake to me; Come hither, Henoch, 
and to my Holy Word.” The passage 
xc. 88 (Ixxxix. 47, Laur.) is, I believe, 
in spite of Ewald’s authority (p. 159 n.), 
an interpolation; and Dillmann’s ex- 
planation is at least very ingenious. 
The literal rendering as it stands is: 
“the first in the midst of them became 
{a word, and that word became] a large 
beast.”” Nor can I think that ο. lii. 1, 
“‘ When he brings His Word upon you 
shall ye not be destroyed,” refers to 
Messiah personally. Cf. Dillm. ll. ce. 

5 Liicke, EFinleitung, wu. s. w. § 12. 
Hilgenfeld, Jud. Apok. 187 ff. The best 
edition is that of Gfrorer, Prophete 
veteres Pseudepigraphi, Stuttgard, 1840, 
pp. 66 ff., who gives Laurence’s Latin 
version of the Ethiopic (Oxon. 1820) 
with a collation of the old Latin, and 
the Arabic version (by Ockley in Whis- 
ton’s Primitive Christianity, vol. iv-, 
1711). The Dissertatio Critica of Van 
der Vlis (Amsterd., 1839) I have not 
been able to use. The quotations are 
given according to the divisions in 
the English version; the references in 
brackets are to Gfiérer’s divisions. The 
Ethiopic text is followed, unless the 
contrary is stated. The English ver- 
sion follows the Latin. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 137 


the general feelings by which they are pervaded. <A 
patriarch translated from earth to heaven, and admitted to 
gaze face to face on the hosts of the spiritual world, is the 
fitting herald of wisdom, righteousness, and judgment to a 
people who, even in suffering, see in their tyrants only the 
objects of coming vengeance. <A prince in exile with an 
exiled nation, the witness of heathen wickedness and the 
victim of tormenting doubts, pleads with significant energy 
the cause of a people whom their God seems to have 
forsaken and given up to the oppression of an alien.’ The 
mysteries of the physical creation are as nothing to one 
who is bewildered by “the counsels of the Most High,” 
though he is referred back to the lessons of 
nature that he may acknowledge his weak- σαν 
ness.” 

This fundamental difference of tone between the two 
Apocalypses appears to explain their diver- 
gences in detail. The burden of Esdras is ὦ ji) θίοοην 
throughout, “How long, O Lord?” The 
present world is utterly corrupt; a few only shall share in 
the promised redemption. Fasting and tears are the pre- 
paration for his visions; and the seer no longer looks upon 
the mysteries of heaven, but listens to them as they are 
revealed by the ministry of angels. Everywhere the 
language is that of an exile among the foul corruptions of 
Egypt, to whom the promised land is no longer the 
gathering field of nations, “the joy of the whole earth.” 
The “woes of Messiah” are described with a terrible 
fulness, which is hardly exceeded by the despairing 
traditions of the Talmud.’ “ Behold, the days shall come 
that ..... the way of truth shall be hidden, and the 
land of faith shall be barren (sterilis a fide V.L.). But 
iniquity shall be increased, ..... and the land shall be 
wasted utterly... ... The sun shall shine suddenly in the 


1 Cf. ec. vi. 9 (iv. 15). Esau appears 2 iv. 5 ff. (ii. 7 8.) 
to represent theIdumzan Herod. Hil- 3 Cf. iv. 35 (ii. 44), ete. 
genf. p. 195. 4 Cf. iy. 21 (ii. 30). 5 Cf. pp. 127, 8. 


128 THE JEWISIE DOCTRINE OF. MESSIAII. 


night and the moon in the day, and blood shall drop from 
wood, and the stone shall give his voice and the people 
shall be troubled. .... . There shall be a sound (Chaos 
V.L.) also in many places; ..... and friends shall destroy 
one another. Then shall wit hide itself, and understanding 
withdraw into his secret chamber, and shall be sought of 
many and yet not be found. Then shall unrighteousness 
and incontinency be multiplied upon earth. One land 
shall ask another and say, Is righteousness gone through 
thee, or one doing righteousness (justwm faciens V. L.)? 
And it shall say, No. At that time shall men hope, and 
obtain nothing; they shall marry, and not rejoice; they 
shall labor, but their ways shall not prosper.”+ And these 
woes and evils are supposed to follow by an inevitable law 
from the working of nature. “For the world hath lost his 
youth, and the times begin to wax old. For the world 
is divided into twelve parts, and the ten parts of it are 
gone already and half of a tenth part... ... And look 
how much the world shall be weaker through age, so much 
the more shall evils increase upon them that dwell there- 
in.”?..... “For the grain of evil was sown in the heart 
of Adam from the beginning, and the fruit of ungodliness 
hath been brought forth-and multiplied up to this time, 
and shall yet be brought forth until the time of harvest 
come.”* So “when commotion shall be seen in the world 
between several nations, and nations shall be disturbed, 
and the people shall be polluted, and princes shall hasten 
to mutual slaughter, and leaders shall be struck with 
consternation, then understand that of these the Most 
High hath spoken as coming before his appointed time.” * 
The stern spirit of exclusiveness through 
2 Τὸ εἰοττι ἐποῖω. which the blessings ushered in by these ter- 
rible signs are reserved for the Jewish na- 
tion alone, is another sign of the overwhelming sorrows 
ἢ σις, ty. Gk): 8 iv. 80 (ii. 38). 


2 xiv. 10 ff. (xiv. 8 ff.). Cf. v. 54, 55 ; 
iy. 50. 4 ix. 8 ff. (ix. 2 ff.). 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 129 
under which the writer of the book was bowed down. 
« And now, O Lord,.... . if the world (6 αἰών) be made 
for our sakes,! why do we not possess an inheritance with 
the world? how long shall this endure?”? And when he 
inquires as to the end of all things and the terrible issues 
of Adam’s sin, the answer is given: “The Most High hath 
made this world for many, but the world to come for few.” 
..... “There be many created, but few shall be saved.” ? 
“ For you is Paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the 
time to come is prepared: .. .. . and, therefore, ask no 
more questions concerning the multitude of them that 
perish ;”* nay, rather “inquire how the righteous shall be 
saved, whose the world is and for whom the world is 
created.” ὅ 

At length, when deceit and oppression and terror have 
filled the world, Messiah shall come, “even 
He whom (Unctus V. L.) the Highest hath 
kept for the end of days of the seed of David,” 
(Om. V. L.), like “a lion from a wood,” “rebuking the 
eagle for her unrighteousness and utterly consuming her.” 
“The rest of my people shall He (7 Ath.) deliver with 
mercy, them that have been preserved in my judgment,” 
and “He shall make them joyful until the coming of the 
day of judgment, whereof I have spoken unto thee from the 
beginning.”® Under another image Messiah is described 
as aman rising from the mysterious sea, into whose depth 
none can look;’ for “no man upon earth can see my son 
[saith the Lord], or those that be with Him, but in the day 
[of His appearing].” “And afterwards,’ that man flew 


The coming of 
Messiah. 


1 Cf. vi. 55 (iv. 63): ‘‘ All this have I 
spoken before thee, O Lord, because 
thou madest the world for our sakes; ” 


4 viii. 1, 3, 52—5D. 


5ix.13. The scarceness of the good 


and vii. 10, 11 (vy. 10). 

2 vi. 57—5Y. 

8 The entrance to the fair city was 
made ‘‘one only path, even between 
fire and water, sosmall that there could 
but one man go there at once” at the 
time of Adam’s transgression, while 
before it was wide and sure, c. vii. 1—18. 


is given as areason for God’s delight in 
them (vi. 35, Eth.). 


6 Ce. xi. 37 ff. (xi. 41 ff.); xii. 8, 81-34 
(xii. 86 80). 


7 ς. xiii. 51, 52. 


8c. xiii. 1—13. Convalescebat cum 
millidbus cali. VY. I. 


150 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


with the clouds of heaven, and wheresoever He turned 
His countenance and looked, all things forthwith vanished 
before him; ..... and there was gathered together a 
multitude of men out of number, from the four winds of 
the heaven, to subdue the Man that came out of the sea. 
But I beheld, and lo, He had raised for Himself a great 
mountain and flew up uponit...... And as the multi- 
tude came against Him, He neither lifted up His hand, nor 
took his sword, nor any instrument of war, but only there 
went forth out of his mouth a billow of fire. .... and 
burned them up every one, until nothing was left of them, 
but only the dust of their ashes and the smoke of their 
conflagration. ..... Afterwards I saw the same Man 
come down from the mountain and call unto Him a 
peaceable multitude; and there came much people unto 
Him. Then was I struck with great fear, and I awaked. 
-.... And this is the meaning of the vision:! The man 
whom thou sawest coming up from the heart of the sea, 
the same is He whom God the Highest hath kept a great 
season, to redeem the world unto Himself (qui per semet 
ipsum liberabit creaturam suam V.L.) ..... And the 
Most High shall begin to deliver those that dwell on the 
earth. [And He shall come to their astonishment (V. L.).] 
And one shall undertake to fight against another, one city 
against another, one place against another, one people 
against another, and one realm against another. And 
when these things shall come to pass, and the signs shall 
happen which I have showed thee before, then shall that 
Man (jilius meus V. L. et Ar.) be declared, whom thou 
sawest (ut virum V. L.) ascending. And when all the 
people hear His voice they shall leave the battles they 
have in their own land one against another. And an 
innumerable multitude shall be gathered together desiring 
to slay Him. But He shall stand upon the 
top of Mount Sion. And Sion shall come, 
and shall be showed to all men, prepared and built, like 


Apoe, “αἱ. 10, 


1.0. xiii. 25—47. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 131 


as thou sawest that mountain to come forth and be formed 
without hands. And this is my Son, who shall rebuke the 
nations for their sins,..... and He shall destroy them 
without labor like coals of fire (per ignem que igni 
assimilata est V. L.). And whereas thou sawest that 
another peaceable multitude was gathered unto Him; 
these are the nine (decem V. L.; novem et dimidia Ar.') 
tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own 
Head shes" . But they took this counsel among them- 
selves, that they would leave the stock of their people 
(multitudinem gentium V.1..) and go forth into a country 
where never mankind dwelt, that they might keep their 
statutes which they had never kept in their own land. 
And they entered through the narrow passages of the 
Euphrates... .. . Forthe Most High held still the flood 
till they were passed over;...... and now the Highest 
shall stay the springs of the stream again that they may 
go through ;? therefore sawest thou the multitude come 
Ὁ ΠΟΥ τς τὸς 

The reign thus commenced in terrible and overwhelming 
desolation shall last for four hundred years.’ 
“After these years,” it is said, “shall my son  _,2%¢7en of Mew 
Christ die, and all men that have breath. 
And the world shall be turned into the old silence seven 
days, like as in the first beginning, and no man shall 
remain. And after seven days [the world that yet awaketh 
not, V. L.] shall be raised up; and the corruptible world 
shall retire afar. And the earth shall restore those that 
are asleep in her, and so shall the dust those that are in 
silence, and the secret places shall deliver those souls that 
were committed unto them. And the Most High shall 
appear upon the seat of judgment; and His mercy shall 
come (7. é., to the distressed faithful. Pertransibunt miseric, 


1 Cf. Baruch, Ep. Syr. init. sias meus cum his qui cum eo [sunt], et 

2 Cf. Apoc. xvi. 12. letificabit eos qui resuscitabuntur. 

3c. vii. 28- δ. The clause iswanting Filius meus Jesus V.L. Filius meus 
in 2th. y. 29. Revelabitur enim Mes- Messias Ar. 


132 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


V.1L.), and His clemency shall cease, and his long-suffering 
shall have an end, but judgment only shall remain, and 
truth shall stand, and faith shall bud, and the work shall 
follow, and the reward shall be showed, and justice shall 
watch, and injustice shall not slumber.” For “the day of 
doom shall be the end of this time and the beginning of 
immortality for to come, wherein corruption is past.”!.... 
The great outlines of these apocalyptic visions offer a 
striking parallel to the teaching of the apos- 
eae δ αθ tles. The times of war and tumult which 
ee portend the coming of Messiah, His sudden 
appearance with a heavenly host, the destruction of the 
wicked by the breath of His mouth, the reign of triumph, 
the general resurrection and last judgment, are brought out 
with distinct clearness. Nor is this all; in spite of the im- 
portance attached to the “good works laid up in heaven,” 
faith is required as a condition of salvation, Legalism is 
spiritualized by the recognition of a higher energy. But a 
sorrowful gloom is over all. Messiah Himself dies. Chaos 
resumes its old sway. The earth is not quickened with a 
new life, but passes away in a second creation. 
Errors such as these were the natural result of times of 
oppression; and we may believe that the 
of bana en’s author of the Book of Ezra would have wel- 
oon ar eomed Christianity as glad tidings; and that 
τί) 11:6 Book of even if he had asked, with others, Are there a 
Sew that be saved? he would probably have 
acquiesced in the answer. But there was a yet narrower 
and sterner form of Jewish hope in which exclusiveness 
degenerated into the wildest intolerance, and the observ- 
ance of the Law into the most passionate formalism. 
This spirit was evoked in its full energy by the rise of 
Christianity, and distinctly animates the Book of Jubilees? 


1 vil. 48 (vii. 12). The book is mentioned under this title 
2Translated by A. Dillmann in by Epiphanius adv. Her. xxxix. § 6. ἐν 
Ewald’s Jahrbiicher der Biblischen Tots Ἰωβηλαίοις εὑρίσκεται, TH καὶ 
Wissenschajt, 1849, pp. 230 f.;1850, 1. Δεπτογενέσει καλουμένῃ .... Itis 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 133 


which is one of the strangest relics of early Jewish litera- 
ture. This remarkable narrative may be called a “haga- 
dical” commentary on Genesis, and it derives its name: from 
the fact that its entire arrangement is based on the festal 
cycle of forty-nine years. The object of the writer is to 
methodize the chronology of primeval history, to explain 
its difficulties, to enforce its lessons. In connection with 
the Apostolic writings, the chief importance of the book 
lies in the fierce severity with which it inculcates the ritual 
of the Law, and in the haughty pride with which it limits 
the special privileges of Israel. The Sabbath appears as 
no earthly institution, but as ordained first for angels, and 
observed in heaven before the creation of man.’ The very 
object for which the people of Israel was chosen was that 
they might keep it. The eating of blood is an offence on 
the same level as the shedding of blood? The cruel deed 
of Simeon and Levi is blessed ;* and precedence over all 
men is given to Levi and his seed, and that they should 
“be as the Angels of the presence.” It is taught that the 
Mosaic ordinances were not only observed by the patri- 
archs, but written in heavenly tables and binding forever. 
And nothing less than the successful claims of Christianity 
to have fulfilled and spiritualized the precepts of the Law, 
can explain the stress which is laid upon its permanent 
force, and the hopeless penalties which are attached to the 
neglect of it. In the presence of ritualism such as this the 
vision of Messiah almost fades away. The personal char- 


also called 7 τοῦ Mwicews ἀποκάλυψις, 
μικρογένεσις, τὰ λεπτὰ Γενέσεως 


Ixxviii. 18, 24. 
Dillm. pp. 88 ff. 


Cf. Ed. Bened. 1. ο. ; 


(Dillmann, pp. 74,76). Its date is some 
time in the first century (id. p. 88), later 
than the Book of Henoch (id. p. 90) 
and earlier than the Testaments of 
the twelve Patriarchs (id. p. 91). The 
4Ethiopic version was made from a 
Greek text: whether this was the origi- 
nal text is uncertain from internal evi- 
dence, and Jerome evidently alludes to 
a Hebrew original of the book. Ep. 


lc. ii. pp. 285-6. Cf. 6. 50. 

2 Pp. 245, 248. 

3 Pp. 37—839. 

4 Pp. 245, 12 (the feast of Taber- 
nacles celebrated by Abraham), 6 
(Tithes), 9 (Circumcision), 49 (Pass- 
over). In the face of this stern ritual- 
ism it is strange that a tradition should 
exist which derives Gal. vi. 15 from the 
ἀποκάλυψις Mwiicews. Cf. Meyer, l.c. 


12 


134 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAII. 
acter of the Redeemer is lost in the vague anticipation of 
a general return from the dispersion! The transition from 
“this world” to “the world to come” is found in a gradual 
progress of moral and physical evil, “till the children are 
gray-headed,” followed by a period of deepening repen- 
tance and increasing strength, which culminates in an age 
when men shall enjoy a thousand years of perpetual youth, 
and no Satan or destroyer disturb their happiness.” ὃ 

At the same time that the attempt was made to furnish 
a supplement to Scripture in the Apocalyptic 
writings, the books of Scripture themselves 
were submitted to a formal interpretation. 
Egypt and Palestine shared alike in the work of transla- 
tion, as they joined in completing the image of Messiah’s 
triumph; and the Septuagint and the Tar- 
gums remain as the monuments of their la- 
bors. Regarding only their present form, the 
LXX. is the most ancient version; and it is perhaps char- 
acteristic of the time and place at which it was made‘ that 
it contains scarcely any passages which bring forward the 
person of Messiah in a clearer light than the original text.’ 
In some places the original ambiguity between a race and 
a person is decided by the selection of the race as the 
source of the Divine blessings; in others the future hope 
appears to be lost in the present which served as the type 
of it; in others the fulness of the original prediction is 
lowered and compressed; but generally the words of the 


2. The doctrine of 
Messiah in the exe 
getic literature. 


(a) The Septua- 
gint. 


1 No mention is made of the promise ο.β iii. 13-21. Cf. Clem. Hom. iii. 20. 
to Eve, p. 238. Nero is directly identified with Anti- 
2 Ce. i. exxiii.; pp. 282, 28, 24. christ, ο. iv. 1. 


8 The Ascensio Lsaie (Gfrorer, Pro- 
phete veteres Pseudepigrapht, pp.1ff.), 
though a Christian Apocalypse, con- 
tains some peculiar elements of Jewish 
tradition. The description of the sue- 
cessive descents of Messiah through 
the seven heavens preparatory to His 
incarnation is well worthy of notice, 


4 Cf. p. 96. 

5 Of these the most remarkable is 
Numb. xxiv. 7 (quoted by Philo, ii. p. 
423 M.). Isai. xxxviii. 11 is very ques- 
tionable; and even in the first passage 
there is no distinct reference to Mes- 
siah. Compare also Amos ix. 12 (Acts 
xv. 17), 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 135 


original are reproduced without any attempt to apply or 
elucidate them." 

But the case is far different with the Targums; and next 
to the writings of the New Testament the 
Targums of Onkelos? and Jonathan furnish 
the best contemporary evidence as to the nature of the 
received view of the Messiah at the commencement of the 
Christian era. This testimony, however, is not only an 
authentic expression of the current belief, but rather an 
embodiment of traditional teaching. The introduction of 
oral Chaldaic paraphrases in the public reading of the 
Scriptures dates from the time of Ezra; and there is every 
reason to believe that written translations existed as early 
as the first century before Christ, though for a long time 
interpreters would naturally shrink from committing their 
versions to writing. Passing by the scanty notices of these 
first versions, the paraphrase of the Law by Onkelos, and 
that of the Prophets by Jonathan ben Usiel, are at once 
the oldest and the most important. Both appear to belong 
to the first half of the first century, though the evidence 
by which their date is determined is seanty and incomplete.’ 
The first, as was required by the nature of the subject, is 
strictly accurate and clear, rarely departing from the origi- 
nal text except to avoid the semblance of anthropomor- 
phic doctrine. In the latter, wider scope was offered to 
the translator, as well through the greater freedom allowed 
in the treatment of the prophetic books, as by the necessity 


(0) The Targums. 


1Cf. Gen. iii. 15, αὐτός σου τη- 
phoet kx. LXX. (cf. Philo i. p. 124), 
συντρίψει Rom. xvi 20; but probably 
tp. is an old mistake for τειρήσει. 
Gen. xlix. 8—10, Ta ἀποκείμενα αὐτῷ 
LXX. 6 ἀποκεῖται, 8. οὗ ἐστίν all. (ef. 
Just. Dial. c. Tryph. § 120; Credner, 
Beitr. ii. 51 ff.) Num. xxiv. 17—19; 
LXX. = ἡγούμενος y. 19. (Cf. Creduer, 
a.a.o. 64). Isai. iv. 2, lost in LXX. 
Tsai. ix. 6, τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ. Μεγάλης 
βουλῆς ἄγγελος LXX.). Isai. Χ]ΟῚ ff. 
LXX. of Israel and not of Messiah ; 


vy. 2, 8,in Matt. xii. 18—21 * LXX. 
Tsai. xlix. 1 ff. is ambiguous, apparently 
of Israel. Ps. ii. 6, ἐγὼ δὲ κατεστάϑην 
LXX. Ps. ex. (cix.) 5, συνέϑλασεν 
LXX. Hagg. ii. 7, τὰ ἔκλεκτα LXX. 


2T have not been able to make use 
of Luzzato’s Rabbinical Essay on Onke- 
los: Philoxenus, etc. Vienne, 1890. 


8 The arguments of Gfrorer are, on 
the whole, sufficient to prove that they 
were made before the final overthrow 
of Jerusalem (Jahrh. ἃ. Heils, 1.86—88). 


190 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 
of giving distinctness to the sublime predictions which 
they contained. It is probable that both have been inter- 
polated in some degree by later hands; but the attempts to 
show that they have been modified with a polemical object 
against the Christians must be considered to have failed} 
The Targum of Onkelos, from its literal exactness, could 
not contain many explicit references to the 
Messiah. Two passages only are quoted in 
which he introduces the title, but those are 
of the utmost importance, as recognizing generally the 
period of Messiah’s coming, and the majesty of His king- 
dom. In translating the well-known words of Jacob’s 


t. The Targum of 
Onkclos. 


Gen. axlix. 10. 


blessing till Shiloh come, he says till Messiah 


comes, whose is the kingdom, and to whom is 


the gathering of the nations. 


Num. xxiv. 17. 


And he gives a correspond- 


ing rendering of the prophecy of Balaam: A 


hing shall rise from Jacob, and a Messiah 


shall be anointed from Israel. 


The last words are perhaps 


in themselves ambiguous, but when taken in connection 
with constant Jewish tradition their meaning cannot be 


doubtful. 


1 Zunz, Gottesd. Vortrage, pp. 61 ff. 
The Messianic passages from the Tar- 
gums are collected by Buxtorf, Lez. 
Talmud, p. 1268 ff., with some slight 
errors; and in a convenient form, with 
the Hebrew text and double English 
translation, by R. Young, The Chris- 
tology of the Targums, Eding., 1853. 
In addition to the Targum of Onkelos 
on the Pentateuch, there is a second, 
originally known as the Palestine Tar- 
gum, which exists at present in a 
double recension on the Jerusalem 
Targum and the Targum of the 
Pseudo-Jonathan. In its present form 
this probably dates from the second 
half of the seventh century (Zunz, 77), 
though based on older materials. 
character is rather that of Jnterpreta- 
tion (Midrash) than of TYranslation. 
Fragments exist of a Jerusalem Tar- 


Its. 


gum on the Prophets(Zunz, 77 ff.) The 
Targums on the Hagiographa are per- 
haps later. That on the Psalms, Proy- 
erbs, and Job is assigned by Zunz to 
the same country (Syria) and date, 
without determining what this is: the 
Targum on the Psalms speaks of Con- 
stantinople (Zunz, p.64n.). Theauthor 
of the Targum of the five Migilloth 
(Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Es- 
ther, Canticles) lived probably “ ziem- 
lich lange nach der talmudischen 
Epoche” (id. p. 65). No Targum of 
Ezra, Nehemiah, or Daniel exists. 
That on Chronicles is of very late date. 
The account of the Targums by Zunz 
(ch. v.)is most masterly and exact, and 
contains in a brief space and a scholar- 
like form all, I believe, that is yet 
known certainly as to their history. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 1387 


The Messianic interpretations of Jonathan are numerous 
and interesting, agreeing in most cases with ἢ ge Tarevm 
the current of later teaching. Thus, he says, οἱ Joathen Den 
A king shall come forth from the sons of κι αἱ. 
Jesse, and Messiah shall arise from his sons yi"? 
sons. This is the branch of the Lord, the son er «αὶ 5 
given to the house of David, who shall endure 
JSorever, in whose time shall be much peace ; 
yet He shall execute a terrible vengeance on the enemies 
of His people, like a fiery flying serpent. By jy. xiv.29. 
Him shall the nations be broken in pieces: 1... 51. 
and they shall bring offerings to Him, because 45 “1, δ. 
He shall be established in goodness, and be seated on His 
throne in truth; and Le shall be for a crown 
of joy. At the same time the Messiah appears 
not only as a conquering and triumphant 2 gubh Ct 4% 
king, but also as the servant of the Lord, the = #0 
servant whom He had chosen, who should 
prosper. And though Jonathan sees in the description of 
Christ’s sufferings only the chastisement of the Jewish na- 
tion, yet he connects this period of distress with Messiah’s 
coming. Because God hath cleansed their souls from sins, 
they shall see the kingdom of their Messiah, they shail 
have many sons and daughters, they shall prolong their 
days, and keeping the Law of the Lord they shall be happy 
according to His good pleasure. 

So also in the other prophets Messiah is that second 
David, the king of Israel, whom the Lord κως iis, 
should raise up; who should go forth from — Jer.2ax.9;x0xiii. 
them, and be revealed from the midst of them, sie 
and teach them the worship of the Lord, as the mystical 
shepherd to whom the flock should be re- 
stored, in whom all the just should trust, and op Te wnt eo 
all the humble dwell under the shadow of His 
kingdom. And as He was to be the son of David, and 
Himself the spiritual David, so was He to come forth 
from Bethlehem, David’s city, being named from the be- 


Is. ix. 6. 


Ts. χαυϊϊϊ, δ. 


138 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


ginning, and destined to rule over all the 
kingdoms of the earths 
The later Targums on the Pentateuch exhibit a striking 
contrast to the rigid simplicity of Onkelos, 
and in their Messianic passages show clearly 
the hopes and influence of a later age. In 
addition to the two passages which he applies to Messiah,? 
they explain fifteen others as referring to His 
time. Moses came forth from the desert, 
Messiah, it is said, shall come out of Rome [the Roman 
Empire ?], in the great paschal night of the second deliv- 
erance of Israel. Then, though the people be 
scattered to the uttermost parts of heaven, the 
Word of the Lord shall gather them thence by the hand of 
Elias the great priest, and bring them thence by the hand 
of Messiah the King. The idea of the terrible conflict of 
good and evil “in the last days” had assumed a form and 
consistency not found in the earlier writings. Then shall 
the serpent strive to sting men in the heel, but 


Zech. vi. 13. 


iii. The later Tar- 
gums on the Penta- 
teuch. 


Ex. xii. 42. 


Deut. xxx. 4. 


Gen. iii. 15. 
Deut. xxv. 19. the sons of the woman shall secure their de- 
Ἔα» xvii. 16. liverance in “the heel of time,” the days of 


Numb. xxiv. 20. 


Numb. xaiii. 21. 


Messiah. All the sons of the Kast, in league 
with Amalek, whose sin shall never be forgot- 
ten, shall then join battle with the house of Israel, and fall 
Sorever, for the cry of Messiah is among His people. ΑἹ- 
ready a second Messiah —the son of Ephraim — appears 
in contrast with Messiah the King, and they 
are compared respectively to the laver in the 
court of the tabernacle and the vessels in the tabernacle 
itself. But still Eder, a watch-tower near 
Bethlehem, is spoken of as the place from 
which Messiah shall be revealed in the end of days.’ 


Ex, x. 9, 11. 


Gen. xxxv, 21. 


1 The references to 1 Sam. ii. 10, and 
2 Sam. xxiii. 3, are at least uncertain; 


8 The same interpretation appears 
also in a passage contained in the Tar- 


that to Isai. xly. 1 obviously incorrect. 

2 Both Targums extend the applica- 
tion of Gen. xlix. 11, 12 expressly to 
Messiah. 


gum of Jonathan on Mic. iv. 8 (And 
thou tower of Eder), which, however, 
seems to be an interpolation: Et tu 
Messia Israelis, qui oceultaris propter 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 139 


The Targums on the Hagiographa contain but few dis- 
tinct Messianic allusions. The only Psalms 
iv. The Targum 


which are directly applied to the Messiah on ite wagiogra- 
pha. 


are Ps. xxi., xlv., ΙΧ]. xxii. The six measures 
Ruth wii. 15. 


of barley which Ruth received from Boaz are 
interpreted to symbolize the six rightcous men who should 
spring from her..... David, Daniel with his companions, 
and King Messias. In the paraphrase of 
Lamentations, it is said: Zhou [Ὁ Lord] 
shalt proclaim freedom to thy people, the house of Israel, 
by the hand of Messiah, as thou didst by the hand of Mo- 
ses and Aaron, in the time of the Passover ; 
and thou Zion shalt be freed by the hand of 
Messiah, and of Elias the High Priest. In Ecclesiastes 
it is expressly said that the day of the coming 
of King Messiah is a mystery, as the day of ς 
death ; and who is he who shall discover it 
by wisdom? Several passages in Canticles are referred to 
the Messiah; and special mention is made of the two deliv- 
erers who should arise, Messias the son of 
David, and Messias the son of Ephraim. 
But while the Apocalyptic and Interpretative literature 
of the Jews shows the form which the Mes- 
sianic hope had assumed as a theological [πὲ Morar tes 
dogma at the beginning of the Christian era, jeaqh ie the pop 
it conveys little information as to the hold 
which the doctrine retained on the mass of the people. 
The teaching of the schools could scarcely touch the sym- 
pathies or influence the character of “the multitude who 
knew not the law;” and the literature which 
survives in after generations is generally that 
which was in advance of the age in which it appeared. 
One important fragment, however, of what may be 
called the popular literature has been preserved. The 
“Psalms of Solomon”? appear to belong to the times of 


Lam. ti. 22. 


Lam, tv, 22, 


Eccles, vite 25. 
FeO ΕΠ 


Cant. iv. 5. 


John vii. 49. 


peccata Ecclesie Zionis, ad te regnum 1 The Greek translation, which alone 
venturum est. remains, is given by Fabricius, Cod. 


140 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIATI. 


the Antiochean persecution,’ and to express the deep peni- 
tence and the devout hope of a pious Jew 
at that crisis. They are distinguished from 
the Apocalyptic writings by a clearer rec- 
ognition of the sins of the people, and from the books 
of the Apocrypha by a greater simplicity and a closer 
adherence to the language of the Old Testament. The 
view which they give of Messiah is proportionately distinct 
and full, especially in the exhibition of the spiritual character 
of His reign. After general prayers for mercy and resto- 
ration (vii. xi.), and beyond the anticipation of a divine 
visitation for judgment (xv.), the recollection of the 
promise “to David and his seed forever” rises in marked 
preéminence (xvii.). Though His throne be cast down, yet 
shall it be raised up. <A king, it is said,? a Son of David, 
shall be girded with strength to bruise unjust rulers, to 
cleanse Jerusalem, to remove sinners, to gather together 
the just from all the places in which they have been 
scattered. He shall shake the earth with His word, the 
writer adds, and bless His people, and the Gentiles shall 
serve Him. He shall be “free from sin” (καϑαρὸς ἀπὸ 
ἁμαρτίας), “an anointed Lord” (χριστὸς Kvpios*), and “shall 
not be weak” through the strength of God. And “happy 
are those who are born in His days, to see the blessings of 
Israel, which God shall bring to pass in the congregation 
ΤΙ. The Messianie of the tribes.” * 

hope of the Jews as The language of these Psalms offers a near 
16 recor of tha approximation to the tone of those who first 
GES welcomed the Messiah; but the various de- 
tails gathered from a scanty literature are first combined 


v. The Psalms of 
Solomon, 


Pscudep. V. T. i. 914 ff. The Psalms 2 Psalm xvii. 5, 8, 29 ΠῚ. 

are translated, and assigned to asecond 

Solomon of the time of the Return, 3 Psalm xvii. 36. Ewald (iv. 844 ἢ.) 

by Whiston, Authentic Records, ete., conjectures that this may be an error 

i. pp. 117 ff. Cf. Ewald, iv. 343 f. of translation for Xp. κυρίου. Cf. Lue. 
1 Cf. Ewald, iv. 848 n. The language ii. 11 (varr. lectt.), 26. 

of Psalm viii. seems decisive on this 

point. 4 Psalms xvii. 50; xviii. 7. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 141 


into a living picture in the records of the New Testament. 
Without the historical narrative the sum 
of the theological teaching is confused and 
often unintelligible. But in a few scattered 
phrases the Apostolic writers have preserved a striking 
outline of the different forms which the national hope of 
the Jews assumed at the time and on the scene of Christ’s 
appearance. The variety and distinctness of the traits 
which they have marked, their simplicity and naturalness, 
their vital connection with existing circumstances, and the 
confirmation which they receive from subsequent history, 
are alike worthy of careful study; and taken together they 
combine to give a vivid and life-like image of the popular 
creed as it was apprehended by men who were ready to die 
for it. 

The early literature of the Jews recognized the existence 
of very different ideas of the Messianic work. 
The difference which was thus admitted in 
theory was embodied in life. The faith and spirit of the be- 
liever in this case, as in every other, moulded the substance 
of his belief; and Holy Scripture seemed to promise to each 
in the coming deliverance exactly that freedom for which 
he longed most ardently. Atonement, independence, resto- 
ration, dominion, union—such were the manifold ideas 
included in the glorious prospect of Messiah’s kingdom. 

But while the form of the hope was indefinite, its 
presence was universal. In some form or 
other general expectation was quickened in file spread ofbe- 
Judea, and in Samaria, and among the Jews 
of the dispersion ;! “ Jerusalem and all Judzea, and all the 
region round about Jordan went out” to John’s Baptism, 
without distinction of rank or sect, “musing whether he 
were Christ.”? In the most different stations were those 
who “waited for the kingdom of God.” “To this the 


1. The New Tes- 
tament. 


The variety and 


1 John i. 41; iv. 25; Acts xxvi. 7. mon people seem to have heard him 
2 Matt. iii. 5; Luke iii. 15; John i.20; most gladly: Matt. xxi. 23-27; Mark 
iii. 28. Yet here, aselsewhere,thecom- xi. 27-83; Luke xx. 6. 


142 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hoped 
to come.” And at a later time Simon the 
mystic and Barkokeba the zealot found mul- 
titudes ready to welcome in them either the “great power 
of God” or the “star which should rise out of Israel.” 
Even in the great diversity of opinion which existed as 
to Messiah, some points seem to have been 
settled by general tradition or consent. It 
was held that the time of His advent, though 
fixed in the Divine counsels, was unknown by men, who 
meanwhile were looking anxiously in “the distress of 
nations” for those “signs” which they had been tanght to 
expect as the first announcement of “the fulness of the 
time.” General belief pointed to an appearance startling 
and sudden, in the “wilderness” or in the “secret cham- 
ber.” Even the Pharisees asked Christ “when the kingdom 
of God should come.”+ And here, too, special blessings 
were reserved for such as looked for them. In the capital 
of Herod there was one “just and devout, 
waiting for the consolation of Israel, to whom 
it was revealed that he should not see death till he had 
seen the Lord’s Anointed.” And others shared the hope 
and assurance of Simeon, since Anna could speak freely 
of Jesus “to those who were waiting for the 
redemption of Jerusalem.” ἢ 
The uncertainty which attached to the time extended 
also-to the manner of Messiah’s appearance. 
The question of the Magi when they inquired 
for Him “who was dorn King of the Jews,” showed a faith 
not general at the period. In recognizing a child as King 
their spiritual insight may be compared with that of 
Simeon and Anna. By others it was made 
an objection to the claims of our Lord, espe- 
cially by His own countrymen, that His family was known 


Acts xxvi. 7. 


The Time of Mes- 
siah’s coming. 


Luke ti. 25, 26. 


Luke ii. 88. 


The Manner. 


Hatt. xiii. 54—58. 


1 Luke xvii. 20. 
2 All. c. ADLX., ete., ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ. All. τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, 5. ἐν τῷ Ἴσ. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE Of MESSIAH. 143 


to them and dwelt among them. “ We know this man 
whence he is,” said the people of Jerusalem, 
“but when Christ cometh no man knoweth 
whence He is.” “How can this man, whose father and 
mother we know,” asked the multitudes at Capernaum, say, 
“I came down from heaven?” They expected to hear 
the cry, “Lo, here is Christ, or lo there,” and to see him 
declared at once in the fulness of power and strength as 
the deliverer of His people. 

As the star in the East was to be the physical emblem 
of Christ’s coming, so was it universally 
believed that Elijah would prepare His way 
at once, by restoring the ancient faith of the people, and 
by consecrating Him to His office. This belief was already 
part of the popular teaching, and even the disciples seemed 
to have looked for its literal accomplishment, when they 
suggested the difficulty: How say the scribes 
that Elias must first come? Nor was this 
all; as Elijah represented the majesty of the prophets, so 
Jeremiah symbolized their devotion; and he who had 
“prayed much for his people and the Holy 
City,” was specially named among the com- 
pany of Messiah at his appearance.! 

Such being among the acknowledged signs of the 
Messiah, it was determined with equal 
agreement that He should spring from Beth- 
lehem, the city of David. The answer of the 
priests to Herod is confirmed by the doubts 
of those who at a later time questioned the Messiahship of 
one whom they supposed to be a Galilean, for they asked, 
Did not the Scripture say that Christ cometh 
of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, 7%” 
whence David was ? 

And not only was the Messiah to spring Τῆς Davidie wpe, 
from David’s city; He was emphatically Dayid’s son2 


John υἱϊ, 27, 


The signs. 


Matt. xvii. 10 1}. 


2 Macc. xv. 14, 


The Birthplace. 


Matt. ti. 5. 


1 Matt. xvi. 14. Cf. 4 Esdr. ii. 15 2 The title itself does not occur in 
(Isaiah). the writings of St. John, and yet in the 


144 THE JEWISIL DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


Such was the answer which the Pharisees made to the ques- 
tion of our Lord; and when the multitudes 
were amazed at the miracles of Jesus they 
said, Zs not this the Son of David? evi- 
dently understanding by the words the prom- 
ised King. The blind on two occasions addressed Him by 
the same title, Have mercy on us, thou Son 
ef David. And the name was spread abroad 
even among strangers: “A woman of Canaan 
.... cried unto Him, saying, Have mercy on me, Lord, 
thou Son of David.” So when the pilgrim multitude led 
Him in triumph, the song was still, “ZZosanna 
to the Son of David ;” “blessed be the king- 
dom of our father David, which cometh in the name of the 
Lord ;”* and when the triumph was over the 
children in the temple once more caught up 


Matt, xxii. 42 ||. 


Matt. xii. 28. 


Matt. ia. 27. 
Matt. xx. 30 |I. 
Matt. xv. 22. 


Matt. xxi. 9. 


Matt. xxi. 15. 


the words. 

The type of royal power was naturally that on which 
the mass of the Jews dwelt with the liveliest 
hope, but the image and promise of Moses 
moulded the expectations of some among 
them. These looked for a prophet rather than for a king,? 
though they entertained no clear conception of the scope 
of his teaching; and the “likeness” of which Moses spoke, 
led them to anticipate an outward resemblance in life 
rather than in work between the lawgivers of the Old and 
New, which attained in later times a fabulous minuteness.® 
A trace of this tendency occurs in the Gospels: when the 
multitudes said, Zhis ts of a truth that 
prophet which should come into the world, 
they soon called to mind the manna in the wilderness, and 


The Mosaic type. 


Deut. xviii. 15. 


John vi. 31 ff. 


passage just quoted heimplicitly recog- Prophet”? and ‘the Messiah” are 


nizes it. Cf. Apoc. v. 5; xxii. 16, 7 ῥίζα 
Δαυΐδ. In the Epistles the Davidiec 
descent of Christ is only twice alluded 
to: Rom. i. 3; 2 Tim. ii. 8. 
1 Mark xi. 10. Cf. Luke i. 32, 69. 
2John vi. 1. Elsewhere ‘the 


distinguished: John i. 21; vii. 40. Cf. 
John i. 46. Perhaps the expressive 
title, ‘‘ He that cometh ” (Matt. xi. 3]}), 
is to be referred to this source. 


8 Cf. Gfrirer, ii. 898 ff. Infr. p. 150. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 145 


asked for a sign like this through which they might be- 
lieve. But the Mosaic type of Messiah was first capable 
of a full realization on the foundation of a Christian 
Church, and consequently it appears prominently in the 
Acts of the Apostles... Before that time the woman of 
Samaria, who might be supposed to feel most deeply the 
need of a second Moses, expressed most truly the belief in 
His advent.? In the later books of the New Testament 
the completeness of the mutual relation between Moses 
and Christ is perfected by the allusions to a spiritual 
Balaam; and in the imagery of the Apocalypse a second 
song of Moses celebrates the final triumph of the new 
Deliverer.’ 

At the same time the higher side of Messiah’s nature 
was not denied or forgotten. The tempta- 
tion turned upon the assumption of the title 
of “Son of God;”* and during our Lord’s 
ministry the evil spirits sought to precipitate and so to 
mar His work by proclaiming His divine character. The 
mystery, however, which was hidden from the eyes of the 
multitude, to whom it seemed blasphemy, was proclaimed 
or acknowledged at solemn crises. Thus John the Bap- | 
tist, Nathanael, Peter, and Mary, bore witness to Christ as 
.the Son of God; and the Sanhedrin recognized the title 
as belonging to Messiah when the High Priest, in the 
presence of the assembly, solemnly adjured Jesus, saying: 


The Divine char- 
acter. 


i. By our Lord Himself: John iii. 17, 
18(?); v. 25; ix. 85 (3); x. 86; xi 4, 

ii. By believers: Matt. xvi. 16 (St. 
Peter not in ||, but cf. John vi. 69); 
[Mark i. 1]; John i. 84, 50; xi. 27; 
[-ΞΞ- 911 


1 Acts ili. 19 1; vii. 97 ff. 


2 John iy. 25. The Messianic doc- 
trine of the Essenes probably assumed 
this form. 


31 Pet. ii. 15; Jude 11.; Apoe. ii. 14 


(ii. 15). There is no trace of this ‘“‘Anti- 
christ”? in early Jewish writings. Ar- 
millus belongs to a much later period. 


4 The following table gives, I think, 
a correct summary of the usage of 
Messiah’s title, ‘Son of God” ([6] vids 
τοῦ δεοῦ), in the Gospels: 


13 


iii. By Jews: Matt. xxvi. 63; xxvii. 
40, 43; ef. John xix. 7 vi. 9.; Luke 
Xxii. 70. 

iv. By evil spirits: Matt. iv. 3, 6 {{; 
viii. 29 ||; Mark iii. 11; Luke iv. 41. 

The sailors (Matt. xiv. 33) and the 
centurion (Matt. xxvii. 54; Mark xy. 
89) see in Christ vids ϑεοῦ, 


146 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


Tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son 
of God. 
The fatal error of the Jewish people lay in the opposite 
Thetuettuman irection; for in the fond anticipations of a 
pee second David, as some divine champion, they 
disregarded the true humanity of the Mes- 
siah. Looking for a sign from heaven, they could not read 
the signs on earth before them. The disci- 
ples “were sorry” when Christ spoke to them 
of His coming passion. St. Peter even beyan 
to rebuke Him for admitting that such humiliation was 
possible. Till His death, some had hoped that it had 
been He who should have redeemed Israel, 
but then their hope was lost, till Christ 
Himself showed them that the prophets had 
foretold all these things; and by the help of this divine 
teaching they set forth from that time the suf- 
suis ferings of Messiah from the Scriptures. Such 
being the feelings of those who were nearest 
to Christ, it cannot but be strange that the people were 
more perplexed by His lowliness.2, When He spoke of 
Himself as the Son of man, the people answered: ..... 
Who ts this Son of Man?* Even when they were most 
startled by His works or words of power, they generally 
saw in Him no more than a prophet, or waited for some 
more striking revelation of His majesty.4. “Jf thou be the 
Christ, tell us plainly,” was the complaint at one time; and 
at another, when they “wondered at His gracious words,” 
“they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?” 
A partial conception of Messiah’s work necessarily fol- 


Hatt. xxvi. 63. 


Hatt. xvii. 25. 


Matt. xvi. 22. 


Luke xxiv. 21. 


Luke xxiv. 46. 


1The statements of Justin (Dial. 2 Cf. pp. 122, 129. 
Seal : Stic, 
§ 49) and Celsus (Orig. 6. Cels. ii. 28) 5 youn xii. 84. Cf, John ix. 35, varr. 
cannot invalidate this evidence. The 
- Sie lectt. 

forms which the Messianic hope assumed 
among the Jews were various, and the 4 Cf. Matt. xxi. 11, 46; Mark ii. 12; 
prevalence of one form among a par- vii. 87; xi. 18; Luke iv. 82, 387; v. 26; 
ticular class, or ata time, cannot ex- vii. 16 [ix. 9; xxiii. 8]. See also John 
clude the others. vii. 26, 31; viii. 53. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 147 


lowed from a partial conception of His nature. To the 
Jews this appeared to be bounded by the 
establishment of a glorious kingdom and the 
confirmation of their law. A second and 
spiritual birth of God’s people or God’s servants seemed 
alike impossible and unnatural; and Nico- 
demus, according to the spirit of his country- 
men, might well find it difficult to understand how it 
should be required of him to lay aside the opinions and 
prejudices which had grown about him from his infancy, 
before he could even see that kingdom for which he 
sought. The brethren of Jesus, who saw His works, still 
wished for an open manifestation of His power and office, 
for they could not “ believe” in a Messiah who hid Himself 
from the great νον]. Peter was eager to 
pay for his Master the tribute to the Temple, 
after his inspired confession. The fiery zeal 
of the sons of Zebedee led them to seek places next to 
their Saviour’s throne; and the Apostles inquired of the 
risen Lord whether he would “αὐ that time 

restore the kingdom to Israel.” Some indeed 

seem to have looked further for “a restitution of the 
world;” but it was reserved for Samaritans, conscious of 
doubt and sin, to feel that Messiah? would “ announce all 
things,” — even the true forms of worship, — and be “the 
Saviour of the world.” ὃ 


The partial con- 
ception of Messiah's 
work. 


John tit. 2--- 4, 


Matt. xvii. 24 fo 
Matt. xx. 21. 


Acts t. 6. 


1 John iii. 2—4 ; vii. 8—5. In the Lord's examination before the San- 


latter passage it is evident that the 
brethren of the Lord sought only to 
precipitate the declaration of this Mes- 
sialship. They lacked that faith which 
could rest wholly in Him and abide 
His time. Cf. John ii. 23, 24. 

2 The title MJessias occurs only in 
John i. 42; iv. 25. Can it be without 
meaning that the Hebrew word is pre- 
served exactly in these two places, 
where the simple faith in the ancient 
promise seems liveliest? 

3 From the circumstances of our 


hedrin, it is evident that He had not 
openly proclaimed Himself as the Mes- 
siah, or the adjuration of the High 
Priest had been unnecessary. In like 
manner it is clear that the abrogation 
of the Mosaie Law had not formed 
part of His public teaching. The for- 
mation of an outward Church neces- 
sarily preceded the announcement of 
this truth. It is also important to 
notice, that in early Jewish writings 
there is no trace of a belief in the sub- 
stitution of a spiritual for a ritual law, 


148 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


But while the poor and simple “guileless Israelites,” 
rude Galilzeans, fiery zealots, clung severally to 
some peculiar Messianic hope, those Jews who 
had been brought into closer connection with 
Greek literature or Roman dominion seem to 
have looked on the popular belief as exag- 
gerated or groundless fanaticism. The “leaven of Herod” 
had penetrated the nation of God. Many thoughts were 
working, though as yet unrevealed, at the time when 
Simeon foresaw that the Saviour was set as 
well “for the fall” as “for the rising of 
many,” and “for a sign which should be spoken against.” 
Hillel, “the second restorer of the Law,” said that there 
would be no Messiah. According to him, the promise and 
its fulfilment belonged to the time of Hezekiah; and 
though, in fact, he may have rejected only the notion of a 
temporal kingdom, his opinion gained extensive currency 

Pee in its literal sense. Philo speaks only in one 

The tye of an place of the coming of a deliverer. “A man 


“idealizing” party. 


2. In contempo- 
rary writers. 

The Messianic 

hope fainter among 
some classes. 


Luke ti. 34 ff. 


shall come,” says the oracle, “leading a host, 
- and he shall subdue nations great and populous by the 
aid of God, who shall send the help that befits the holy. 
And this is an undaunted bravery of soul, and a most 
mighty strength of body,’ two things of which even one is 
formidable, but if both meet they are wholly irresistible. 
But some of the foes [the oracle says] are unworthy to be 
defeated by men, against whom [God] will array swarms 
of wasps for their most shameful destruction, warring in 


whieh assumed a definite form after tainly to Messiah, yet the passage 


the tenth century. 


1 Sanhedr.c. 98. Cf. Just. M. Dial. 
68, 71, 77. Thus at a later time the 
priests and zealots were ranged on op- 
posite sides: Gfrérer, ii. p. 489. 


2 Philo, de Prem. § 16 (page 4238 M.), 
(Numb. xxiv. 7, LXX.). The reference 
to “δὴ inspired prophet” (de Monarh. 
i. § 9) is too general to be applied cer- 


claims attention: ἀλλά τις ἐπιφανεὶς 
ἐξαπιναιῶς προφήτης ϑδεοφόρητος ϑὲεσ- 
πιεῖ καὶ προφητεύσει, λέγων μὲν 
οἰκεῖον οὐδὲν, οὐδὲ γὰρ, εἰ λέγει, 
δύναται καταλαβεῖν ὅ γε κατεχόμενος 
ὄντως καὶ ἐνδουσιῶν, ὅσα δὲ ἐνηχεῖ- 
ται διελεύσεται, καθάπερ ὑποβάλλον- 
τος ἑτέρου. No description, perhaps, 
could ofier a more instructive contrast 
to the prophetic office of Christ. 


THE JEWISIE DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 149 


defence of the holy ones. [It says] moreover, that this 
[hero] shall not only enjoy surely, without bloodshed, 
victory in war, but also an unassailable right of sovereignty, 
for the help of those who may become his subjects through 
good-will, or fear, or reverence.” It is only necessary to 
read the context to feel how little importance Philo laid 
on the presence or work of this victorious deliverer. The 
hope which he cherished rested on the promises made to 
the whole nation, and not on the predictions of a single 
deliverer; and thus, while his expectation of a personal 
Messiah was apparently feeble, he paints in glowing colors 
the blessedness of a coming reign of virtue, when the ene- 
mies of God shall be confounded, and His people gathered 
from the utmost corners of the world to dwell in their own 
land. Then, he says, wars shall cease among men, and 
wild beasts shall forget their fierceness. And the scattered 
children of God shall return under the guidance “of a 
form (ὄψεως) more divine than that of man, unseen by 
others, and visible only to those who are being saved; and 
they shall find three advocates (παρακλήτους) of their 
reconciliation (καταλλαγῶν) with the Father :— Firstly, the 
kindness and goodness of [God] who invites them; ... . 
secondly, the holiness of the patriarchs of their race; ... . 
and thirdly, that, through which especially the favor of 
those things which have been mentioned prevents them, 
the reformation of those who are being led to a [new] truce 
and covenant, who have been able with difficulty to come 
from a pathless wandering to that path whose end is no 
other than to please God —as sons a father. Then shall 
the ruins of their cities be repaired ; the prosperity of their 
fathers shall seem but little in comparison with the peren- 
nial springs of God’s favor, by which they will be cheered; 
aud their enemies shall be filled with dismay and sorrow 
when they see the sure and unchangeable prosperity of 
God’s people.”? 


1 Philo, de Execrat. §§ 8,9. Philo quotes, in his Messianic descriptions, 


13* 


150 THE JEWISIE DOCTRINE OF MESSIAII. 


While Philo cherished in this way a sure belief that his 
nation was destined to take the foremost 

Sy aa place in the world, Josephus appears to 
pegs abandon the trust in a national restoration, 
as well as that in a personal Saviour. Rome 

is acknowledged as the mistress of the world: Vespasian 
is proclaimed to be the king who should rise from the 
East. In a narrative of the early history and final struggle 
of the Jews, which become inexplicable without the recog- 
nition of the one central hope by which they were 
quickened, he never once betrays any personal interest, 
much less belief, in the doctrine of Messiah. Yet even 
thus he bears ample testimony to the powerful hold which 
it maintained on the nation. “ When Fadus was procu- 
rator of Juda,” he relates, “a certain sor- 
cerer (γόης), by name Theudas, persuaded 
the great mass of the people (τὸν πλεῖστον ὄχλον) to 
take up their property and follow him to the river 
Jordan, for he announced that he was a prophet, and 
said that he would divide the river by his command, 
and give them an easy passage ; and saying this he deceived 
many ;”! so faithfully did the nation cherish the recollec- 
tion of their first deliverance as the image of that which 
should come. The same characteristic marks the history 
of “the Egyptian false prophet, who came into the country, 
being a sorcerer, and having persuaded men that he was a 
prophet, collected-about thirty thousand of those whom he 
had deceived. And these he led from the wilderness to 
the Mount of Olives;”2..... “for he said that he wished 
to show them how at his bidding the walls of Jerusalem 
would fall, through which he promised that he would afford 


Popular risings. 


Levit. xxvi.; Deut. xxviii.; Numb. was present, but it by no means sup- 
xxiy. 7; and also Isai. liv. 1; Ps.cxx. 8. ports the identification of the Word 
Cf. Gfrérer, Philo, i. 582. Dihne, 1,482 and the Messiah, but rather distin- 
ff. Possibly the ‘divine vision” may  guishes them. 

be an idealized antitype of the “ pillar 
of fire” which attended the Jews on 
their first Exodus, in which the Word 2 Joseph. B. J. ii. 13, 5. 


1 Joseph. Antig. xx. 4, 1. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 151 


them an entrance into the city.”’ And these impostors 


were but specimens of a class of “vagabond men and 
deceivers, who, under the pretence of divine inspiration 
(ϑειασμοῦ), compassed revolutions and changes, and per- 
suaded the multitude to indulge in mad hopes (dapovar), 
and led them forth into the wilderness, as though God 
would show (? δείξοντος) them there signs of freedom,” or, 
as it is expressed in the parallel passage, promising “to 
show evident prodigies and signs, wrought according to the 
foreknowledge of God.”? The final insurrection is the 
clearest proof of the general spread of this Messianic 
enthusiasm, for Josephus allows that “that which especially 
incited the Jews to the war was an ambiguous oracle found 
in their sacred writings, to the effect ‘that at that time 
one out of their country should rule the world (τῆς 
οἰκουμένης). ὅ And even in the last extremity of the siege, 
“many prophets were sent by the chiefs among the com- 
mon people, charging them to wait for the help of God;” 
and these found ready credence, so that six thousand fell 
in the porch of the temple, whither they had fled “ expect- 
ing to receive the signs of safety.” ἢ 

The hope entertained by the Jews was indeed so 
notorious that it did not escape the notice 
of Roman historians; and they attached so 
much importance to the predictions on which 
it was based, as to find their fulfilment in the elevation of 
Vespasian to the imperial throne. “A few,” says Tacitus, 


(c) Classical writ- 
ers. 


1 Joseph. Antig. xx. 7, 6. In the schneider supposes, Theolog. Fl. Josephi, 
other passage there is no allusion to §10. Cf. Antig. x. 11, 7. 
this promised miracle. 4 B. J. vi. 5, 2. 

The paraphrase which Josephus gives 
of the promise to Abraham is charac- 
teristic : προεδήλου τὸ γένος [τὸ] 
αὐτῶν εἰς ἔϑνη πολλὰ καὶ πλοῦτον 
ἐπιδώσειν, καὶ μνήμην αἰώνιον αὐτῶν 
ἔσεσϑαι τοῖς γενάρχαις (Απίϊᾳ. i. 

8.8. J. vi. 5, 4. The reference is 14,4). But it is to be remembered that 
probably to the prophecy of Daniel, neither Philo nor the Targum under- 
and not to that of Balaam, as Bret- stood this of Messiah. 


2 Joseph. 11. cc. Josephus contrasts 
these fanatics with the zealots (AnaTal, 
sicarit) as being “in hand more pure, 
but in purpose more impious.” B. J. 
ii. 18, 4. 


152 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 

in speaking of the prodigies which preceded the destruction 
of Jerusalem, “turned these events into a cause of alarm; 
the greater number were possessed with a belief that it was 
written in the ancient writings of the priests that it would 
come to pass at that very time, that the East would grow 
mighty, and that men proceeding from Judea would gain 
the empire of the world. An ambiguous oracle, which had 
foretold [the fortunes of ] Vespasian and Titus.”? . 
Suetonius relates the same circumstance almost in the 
same words, adding, however, that the belief was ancient, 
uniform, and universally current throughout the East. 

But however strong the hope was, even after the 

destruction of Jerusalem, it was quenched, 
at no distant time, in the blood of the noblest 
Jews. The disastrous rising of Barkokeba 
was the last public profession of the earlier 
creed. Afterwards a gloom settled over the image of 
Messiah, and increasing sorrows were described as the 
sure signs of His approach. 

The Eliezer, surnamed the Great, said :? “ A little before 
the advent of Messiah® shamelessness shall 
be increased ; and there shall be great dearth 

of corn; the vine shall bear fruit, but [from the excess of 
revellers] wine shall be sold dear. The mightiest empire 
in the world shall be overwhelmed with evil judgments, 
and no chastisement shall have place. The synagogues 
shall be converted into houses of shame; the borders of 
Judeea shall be laid waste, and all the region shall be made 
desolate. Noble men shall go round from town to town 
and meet with no offices of mercy. The wisdom of 
teachers shall seem of ill-savor; the innocent shall be 


Ill. The Messi- 
anie hope in the 
later Jewish writ- 
ings. 


1, The Mishna. 


1 Tac. Hist. v.13; Suct. Vesp.4. Per- 
crebuerat oriente toto vetus et constans 
opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore 
Judea profecti rerum potirentur. The 
well-known passage, Suet. Claud. 25, 
Judos impulsore Chresto assidue tu- 


multuantes urbe expulit, may refer to 
the intrigues of some fanatics. 
2 Sota, § 15 (iii. pp. 808-9, ed. Suren- 
hus). Cf. Edzard, Avoda Sara, pp. 248 f 
8. Ὦ ΓΊΞΙ.Σ.Ξ In calcaneis M. Cf. 
Buxtf Lex. Rabb. s. v. Wagenseil, 1. c. 


Tt 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAI. 1559 
despised; and the failing of truth shall be great. Young 
men shall confound the face of the old; the old shall rise 
before the young. The son shall provoke the father; the 
daughter shall rise against her mother, and the daughter- 
in-law against her mother-in-law ; in fine, every one shall 
have for his foes those of his own household. In truth, 
that age shall have the face of a dog, and the son shall not 
reverence his parent. On whom, then, must we trust? On 
our heavenly Father.” ἢ 

This remarkable passage stands, I believe, alone in the 
Mishna;? but in the Gemara many other 
strange and inconsistent traditions occur, δῖ τὰ 
which seem at times more like the expression 
of despair than of faith. The “birth-pangs of Messias” 
passed into a proverb;* and some Rabbis declared that 
they wished not to behold His coming.’ Drought, famine, 
thunder, and wars, were among the signs which should 
precede Him; and it was said that the sight of men should 
fail for anguish and sorrow. Nor was the moral state of 
the world expected to be better than the material. The 
divine teaching was to fail, and all men were to become 
Sadducees: “when men grow fewer and fewer,” so the 
tradition runs, “expect Messias;*> when the world is over- 
whelmed with evils as with a flood; when the last supply 
is consumed and the last hope gone.” 

The prevailing tone of these traditions is due in all 
probability to the disappointment of earlier 
dreams. Various limits had been fixed for οι Smeof Jee 
the coming of Messiah, and, as Raf confessed, 
all were passed. Some had likened the duration of the 


1 Cf. Lactant. Instit. vii. 15 f. however seem to be accurate. The 
2 Various opinions as to the coming Messianic interpretations of the Old 
and work of Elias are given: Edaj.s. Test. common to the New Test. and 


f. (iv. p. 352). Jewish writers are given in Note (1) at 
3% bwcbon (ὠδῖνες, Matt. xxiv. 8; the end of the chapter. 
Mark xiii. 8). 5 Sanhedr. 91,1 (referring to 2 Sam. 


4 Schottg. ii. 546-7; 971. I have not xxii. 28): Schottg. ii. 154: 958. 
verified Schottgen’s references, which 6 Schattg. ii. 956. 


154 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


world to a week of heavenly days, six thousand years of 
trial and labor followed by a millennial sabbath.! Two 
thousand years, it was thought, elapsed before the Law, 
two thousand were to pass under the Law, and two 
thousand years were reserved for the victories of Messiah. 
Others thought that the world would last eighty-five years 
of Jubilee (4165 or 4250 years), and that Messiah would 
come in the last.2. The Romans, it was said at one time, 
shall oppress Israel for nine months.’ Others again meas- 
ured four hundred years from the last desolation of the 
Holy City as the utmost limit of delay; but the time went 
by, and then men cried in despair, “Let his bones be 
broken who computes the limits of Messiah’s coming.” 4 
Different explanations were proposed for the delay. The 
strangest fancy perhaps was that it was occasioned by the 
necessity for all the souls in the receptacle of spirits 
(Guph) to be embodied first ;° but in some form or other 
it was generally referred to the sins of the people. “If 
Israel keep but one sabbath, or one fast duly, Messiah at 
length will come.”® We came, according to another wild 
legend, on the day of the destruction of the Temple, but 
was suddenly carried away to be revealed at His proper 
time.” And with strange and tragic irony others said, He 
is even now sitting among the poor and wounded at the 
gates of Rome, and men know Him not.® 

The twofold description of Messiah’s advent was ex- 
plained by the different circumstances under 
which He might come. He would come, it 
was said, if the people were wholly good or wholly 
wicked; if good, then He would appear, according to the 
words of Daniel, on the clouds of heaven; if evil, then 


The manner. 


1 Edzard, ]. 6. p. 66. This idea was 5 Edzard, p. 28. Cf. pp. 224 ff 


popular with the Christian Fathers: 6 Edzard, p. 247. 
ef. Barn. Zp. 15; Iren. v. 28, 8. Lac- 7 Midr. Echa. 59, and Jer. Berach. 
tant. Znstit. vii. 14, and nott. 5,1. Cf. Jost, Gesch. d. Judenth. 404 n. 
2 Schottg. ii. 963. Cf. Targ. Mic. iv. 8. 
3 Id. 970. 8 Schottg. ii. 969. Edzard, p. 254, or, 


4 Id. 965. as others said, in Ede (id. 1. c.). 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 155 


meek and lowly, as foretold by Zechariah. As to the 
nature of His kingdom, the later tradition in one respect 
was uniform. There will be no difference, it was said, 
between these days and the days of Messias, except in the 
subjugation of the Gentiles? But as to its duration 
opinions widely differed. Passages were quoted from the 
Prophets which appeared to fix forty or seventy years, or 
three generations, or a thousand, or seven thousand years 
for its continuance.? And “in those days the Nazarites 
shall drink wine;” and “there shall be no more prose- 
lytes;” but “all the Gentiles of their own accord shall be 
brought to Messiah,” and “ all shall be clean.”* Thus some 
said, “in the days of Messiah there will be thirteen tribes, 
and the thirteenth will be Messiah’s;” but others again 
doubted whether the ten tribes would be restored.’ 

The later Jewish books contribute some further details 
as to the expectation of Messiah, though 
perhaps little stress can be laid upon their ori- 
ginality.® It is said that a new Elias, born, like 
the first, of barren parents, will herald His approach by a 
preaching of repentance, according to some only three days 
before Messiah.’ Messiah Himself will appear in the 
North, and His advent will be marked by a star. Moses 
and Elias will attend Him, and He “will stand upon the 
roof of the Temple;” and the Shekinah will continue 
with men for three years and a half.® The same Passover 
night which witnessed the chief crises in the fortunes of 
the human race will also witness Messiah’s coming.” And 


3. Other Jewish 
works, 


1 Schéttg. ii. 969. In this connec- 
tion (Zech. xii. 10—12) the idea of a 
Messiah, ‘tthe son of Joseph,” was 
first entertained: Succa Bab. 52. Cf. 
Gfrérer, ii. 258 ff. Infr. p. 160, n. 9. 
The death of Messias is admitted in 4 
Esdr. vii.; supr. p. 107. 

2 Edzard, p. 208. Cf. Gfrérer, Juhrh. 
d. Heils, i. 219. Bertholdt, p. 41. 

3 Schottg. ii. p. 973. 414. pp. 618 ff. 

ὅ Schottg. ii. p. 207 (fr. Ezek. xlviii. 


19). Cf. Sanhedr. ¢. xi.3. Targ. Zech. 
x. 4. 4, Esdr. xiii.; supr. p. 181. 

6The preéxistence of Messiah is 
taught in the later writings. It was 
“the Spirit of Messiah which brooded 
over the waters at the creation.” Cf. 
Nork, p. ix. and nott. 

7 Schottg. ii. p. 583. 

8 Id. pp. 538, 531. 

9 Id. pp. 544, 188, 548. 


10 Jcrome mentions this ‘ Jewish 


156 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


some speak of a mediatorial death and exaltation, of a res- 
urrection of the patriarchs and of the just, of the removal 
of the Redeemer (Goel) to heaven.’ Then all the feast-days 
will be abolished except the day of atonement, and sacri- 
fices shall cease, and there will be no distinction of clean 
and unclean.22. The kingdom of Messiah will be strong in 
spite of the banded heathen. The oppressors of Israel 
will be destroyed, and all others made to do service to 
God’s chosen people. Then the blessings of Eden will be 
restored; all creation will be relieved from the consequen- 
ces of man’s sin; and God will walk as in old times among 
His people, and man will not fly from the presence of His 
Maker.’ 

There is still another form of Jewish literature which 
has exerted a powerful influence upon the 
later doctrine of Messiah, but it is uncertain 
whether the mystic teaching of the Kabbala 
was directed in any degree towards the subject at the be- 
ginning of the Christian era. Mysticism and philosophy 
looked first within rather than without for the fulfilment 
of the aspirations which they cherished; and they probably 
received from Christianity the impulse by which their later 
course was shaped.* 


4, The mystic lit- 
erature of the Jews. 


tradition”? as the ground of the 2 Schottg. ii. pp 612 ff. 


“ Apostolic tradition” of the watch- 


ings of Easter-eve — the nox vigiliarum 
(Comm. in Matt. xxy. 6). The passages 
referring to this usage are given by 
Bingham, Antig. xxi. 1, 32. Schottg. 
ii. pp. 531, 568. 

1 Schittg. ii. pp. 566, 578 ff , 595. The 
notion of ἃ “" suffering Messiah” belongs 
exclusively to a late period. He ap- 
pears as the son of Joseph or Ephraim, 
as opposed to the son of David; but the 
earliest trace of this belief occurs in 
the Babyl. Gemara. Cf. Targ. Cant. 
iv. 5; (Jerus.) Ex. xl. 11. Pearson On 
the Creed, 164 note ; Strauss, Leben 
Jesu, ii. 824; Gfrérer, ii. 262; 270-1. 
Cf. infr. p. 160, on Zohar. 


8 Gfrérer, Jahrh. α΄. Heils, i. pp. 418 f. 

Buxtorf’s essay, De Messia venturo 
(de Synag. Jud. c. 1. Ugolini, Thes. iv.), 
contains very little of importance, but 
gives a curious description of the ten 
expected signs of Messiah (pp. 1184 ff-), 
of the ten consolations (pp. 1160 ff.), 
and of the great feast which should 
mark His advent (pp. 1162 ff.). 

I haye collected in a note at the end 
of the chapter the Messianic passages 
quoted in the New Testament, which 
are interpreted in the same manner in 
Jewish writings. 


4 Cf. Zunz, cap. ix. xxi. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSTIAT. 157 


Like other Eastern nations, the Jews were naturally in- 
clined to theosophic speculation, and though 
this tendency may have been repressed by 
the definite teaching of revelation as long as 
they were confined within the sacred boundaries of Pales- 
tine, it found a freer scope after the exile. The prophecies 
of Ezekiel suggested a congenial subject for mystical inter- 
pretation. In their general imagery they appeared to 
reflect the symbols of a strange nation, and to invite the 
study of Eastern wisdom. The Vision of 
the Divine glory —the chariot-throne on 
which the Lord was seen by the river of Chebar — formed 
the text for the inquiry into the essence and majesty of 
God; as the narrative of Genesis seemed to contain under 
a veil the secrets of creation. Mound these 
two centres — the manifestation of God’s 
glory in Himself and in Creation —Theology 
and Nature — fancies and thoughts clustered, and at length 
gained consistency. Enthusiasts saw the shadows of their 
own dreams in the divine history of their nation, and fan- 
cied that the patriarchs were their teachers. Whatever 
they felt to be true in foreign systems was found latent in 
some symbolic word or number. All inward and outward 
experience was held to be only a commentary on the fulness 
of the Law and the Prophets. 

The progress of mysticism is generally the same: a 
vague aspiration, a pregnant word, a tradi- 
tion, gathering form and fulness in the lapse 
of time, an incongruous system, treasured in the secret 
discipline of schools, and at length committed to writing. 
And such was the history of the Kabbala. Already, in 
the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, there are 


The origin of this 
literature. 


Ezek. i. 


Its great subdivis= 
tons. 


Its growth. 


1 The name belongs to a much later (Zunz, 44 n.; cf. ed. 402, n.); and even 
period. The root is kabal, to receive after the technical sense of the word 
{by tradition], and the word was origi- was established, it was still commonly 
nally applied to all the books of the used for ‘oral tradition” in the 18th 
Old Testament besides the Pentateuch and 14th centuries (Zunz, ]. c.). 


14 


158 THE JEWISIL DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


traces of the recognition of esoteric wisdom in the 
“ Chariot” and the “Creation;” and at Alexandria the 
new theory found a rapid and natural development.’ In 
Palestine and Babylon the same teaching spread, but 
under close restrictions. It was forbidden for any one 
under thirty years of age to read the Vision of Ezekiel. 
The public exposition of the “works of creation” or of the 
“chariot” was unlawful,? and single hearers were selected 
with special care. The very form of instruction was enig- 
matic. The truth was expressed in short “sentences for 
thinking men;” principles only were given, and not the 
application of them. 
As long as the Kabbala remained in this form, it is evi- 
dent that it must have continued subject to 
tone ee eeu, external influences. Its teaching included 
peer towrit- the knowledge of all mysteries; and as Chris- 
tianity most truly purified the speculations 
of the Neo-Platonists and the polytheism of Julian, so 
also it must have modified the secrets of Jewish tradition. 
The philosopher, the statesman, and the mystic, would 
have shrunk equally from the conscious appropriation of 
Christian doctrine; but some principles, when once enun- 
ciated, approve themselves so certainly to the heart and 
reason, that it becomes a question afterwards whether they 
spring from revelation or from intuition. Thus open on 
one side to the Persian doctrine of emanation, and on 
the other to the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation, the 
Kabbala grew in silence, till at last, in the seventh or 
eighth centuries, the traditionary dogmas were embodied 
in written commentaries.’ Of these, two remain widely 
separated in the times of their redaction, but both probably 
were based on traditions of equal antiquity. The Sepher 


1 Zunz, pp. 162,163. Sirac.xlix.10. There are in the Talmud traces of the 
2Mishna, Chagiga, ο. ii.,§ 1. Non existence of secret interpretations of 
exponunt .... opera creationis cum the Mercaba and Bereshith, Zunz, 164. 
duobus neque currum cum uno, nisi 
fuerit sapiens qui sensum intelligit. 8 Zunz, 165. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 159 


Jetsira, or Book of the Creation, dates, in its present form, 
from about the eighth century:’ the Sepher ha Zohar, or 
Book of Splendor, owes its existence to Rk. Moses of Leon 
in the thirteenth century,? 

It follows, from what has been already said, that little 
stress can be laid on the passing coincidences 
between the Kabbalistic books and the New 
Testament. In their fundamental principles, 
the two present a total contrast. The Jetsira develops a 
system of pantheism utterly at variance with Christianity ; 
and the same pantheism lies at the basis of Zohar. At 
the same time speculations on the Divine Nature are 
necessarily so vague, that recent theologians have found 
in Zohar the whole of Christianity. The two natures of 
Messiah, and His threefold office, are said to be symbolized 
in the tree of the ten Sephiroth, and in the Chariot ;° and 
those more abstruse questions as to the Person of Christ, 
which agitated and divided the Church, are said to be 
anticipated and decided in the mystical dogmas of Simeon 


False interpreta- 
tions of Zohar. 


ben Jochai. 


1 Zunz, 165, who gives numerous ex- 
amples of later idioms and words. The 
Talmud contains a reference to a Sepher 
Jetsira, which Zunz supposes to be an 
error for Halcoth Jetsira mentioned 
elsewhere (p. 464n.). Popular tradition 
ascribes its authorship to R. Akiba, or 
even to Abraham. In the absence of 
an exact criticism of its composition it 
is impossible to fix the date of its first 
elements. Cf. Jellinek, Beitrage zur 
Gesch. d. Kabbala, i. Leipsic, 1852. 

2 This has been satisfactorily estab- 
lished by Jellinek in his tract, Moses 
ben Schemtob de Leon und sein verhalt- 
niss zum Sohar, Leipsic, 1851. The 
warm approval of Jost is sufficient to 
remove any lingering doubt as to the 
correctness of Jellinek’s conclusion : 
A. Jellinek und die Kabbala, Leipsie, 
1852. Cf. Zunz, pp. 404 f. Jellinek 
detects the presence of nine different 
authors in the present work (Jost, 


p- 10); and it is impossible not to hope 
for some clear results from his later 
studies. 

The other opinions as to the origin 
of Zohar are given by Joel, Die Meli- 
gions-philosophie des Sohar, 1849, pp. 
61 ff. 


8 Schottg. ii. pp. 294 ff. ; 350 ff. ; 356 ff. 
Ilis arguments rest on the convertibility 
of the terms Shekinah, Metatron, ete., 
with A/fessiah, which seems to be un- 
warranted. Messiah is comparatively 
rarely mentioned by name, and where 
the title occurs there is little to justify 
the identification. Cf. Schéttg. ii. pp. 
267, 278, 289, 412, 4138. The most re- 
markable passage (p. 841) seems to have 
but little of a Christian tone. The pas- 
sages here referred to maintain ex- 
pressly the twofold Messias—the Son 
of David and the Son of Ephraim : 
cf. p. 360. 


160 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


The direct and unquestionable traditions as to Messiah, 
which are embodied in Zohar, are more inter- 
esting. He is to be revealed first in Galilee,! 
coming from the garden of Eden; and a star 
in the East is to herald His approach: the land which was 
first laid waste by invaders is to receive first its consolation? 
He is to spring from the race of Boaz and David ;° and the 
dove which brought to Noah the tidings that the flood had 
abated shall hover over Him, and place a crown upon His 
head.’ To Him the little ones shall be gathered, and He 
shall collect the captives from all the corners of the earth. 
He shall enter Jerusalem, according to the prophet, riding 
onan ass;°and “drink the cup” of suffering as men;’ and 
Messias, the son of Joseph (or Ephraim), shall die, and rise 
again; and the dead shall be raised. 
But while it is impossible to show that the mysticism 
ce which gave this form to the doctrine of Mes- 
ence of these specu- sinh after the Christian era had led to any 
cd clear conception of a suffering Saviour before 
His Advent,’ it unconsciously prepared the way for a true 
recognition of His Divine nature. Even in the Pentateuch 
there are traces of arevealed as well as of a hidden God, 
of one on whom man may look and still live, of an angel 
(Maleach) who exercises the functions of deity. This con- 
ception of the external manifestation of the Deity was 


Authentic Messi- 
anic traditions. 


1The reason alleged is given by Christian, from the summary of his 
Jerome (Comm. in Matt. v. 16) ut ubi teaching. An answer of Glessner is ap- 
Israelis fuerat ab Assyriis prima cap- pended, witha rejoinder of Schiéttgen, 
tivitas, 101 redemptoris preconium nas- but nevertheless his case seems quite 


ceretur. insuflicient. 
2 Schottg. ii. 524, 525; 1. ii. In note (2)at the end of the chapter 
3 Id. ii. 525. 4 Id. p. 537. some account of the later Samaritan 
5 Id. pp. 541, 542. Christology is given. 
6 Id. p. 643. 9 Friedrich’s refutation of Bertholdt’s 
7 Τὰ. pp. 112, 550. argument in support of the ante- 
8 Id. pp. 557, 5€5, 572. Christian doctrine of a suffering Mes- 


Schsttgen in his Zectiones Rabbinice siah, may be added to the other refer- 
ii.§5 8 ff. endeavors to establish that ences which have been given on this 
It. Simeon b. Jochai—the reputed subject: Discuss. de Christol. Samar. 


author of Zohar,— must have been a Lib. Lips. 1821, pp. 12 ff. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 161 


followed in the later books by a corresponding representa- 
tion of His invisible energy. In the Book of Proverbs, 
Wisdom (Ahokma, copia) appears in some degree to fill 
up the chasm between God and the world; and in the 
Apocryphal writings this mediative element is apprehended 
with greater distinctness, but at the same time only par- 
tially, and with a tendency to pantheistic error, Mean- 
while the growing belief in an angel-world, composed of 
beings of the most different natures and offices, gave con- 
sistency to the idea of a Power standing closer to God 
than the mightiest among the created hosts. The doctrine 
thus grounded fell in exactly with the desire of the philo- 
sophic interpreters of Scripture to remove from the text the 
anthropomorphic representations of the Supreme Being; 
and with varied ingenuity and deep insight into the rela- 
tions of the creature and the Creator, the finite and the In- 
finite, they constructed the doctrine of the Word (Memra, 
λόγος). 

The belief in a divine Word, a mediating Power by 
which God makes Himself known to men in 
action and teaching, was not confined to any 
one school at the time of Christ’s coming. It 
found acceptance alike at Jerusalem and Alexandria, and 
moulded the language of the Targums as well as the specu- 
lations of Philo. But there was a characteristic difference 
in the form which the belief assumed. In Palestine the 
Word appears, like the Angel of the Pentateuch, as the 
medium of the outward communication of God with men; 
in Egypt, as the inner power by which such communica- 
tion is rendered possible. The one doctrine tends towards 
the recognition of a divine Person subordinate to God;1 
the other, to the recognition of a twofold personality in the 
divine essence. 

The earliest Palestinian view of the Word 1 ἢ Palestine. 
is given in the Targum of Onkelos. In this it is said 


IV. The doctrine 
of the Word. 


1 Yet the personal Metatron was created. Cf. Dorner, i. 60. 


14* 


162 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAII. 


the Lord protected Noah by His Word when he entered 
the Ark: that He made a covenant between 
ome arm F Abraham and His Word: that the Word of 
Gen vii. the Lord was with Ishmael in the wilderness ; 
fag “2 with Abraham at Beersheba; with Isaac when 
he went among the Philistines; with Jo- 
seph in Egypt. At Bethel, Jacob made a covenant that 
the Word of the Lord should be his God. 
Moses, at Sinai, brought forth the people to 
meet the Word of God. In the Book of Deu- 
teronomy, again, the Word of the Lord appears as ὦ con- 
suming fire, talking to His people from the midst of the 
mount, and fighting for them against their enemies; and 
the same image recurs in the Targum of Jonathan on the 
books of Joshua and Samuel. 
In the later Targums on the Pentateuch, the works of the 
Word are brought out more plainly. He 
creates man, and blesses him, and detects his 


Gen. rxviit. 20. 


Exod. xix. 17. 


Deut. tii. 2; iv. 24. 


The later Tar- 


gums. 
fall. By Him Enoch is translated, and Hagar 
comforted. He appears to Abraham in the plains of 


Mamre, and provides the ram for him on Moriah. He is 
present with Jacob at Bethel, in Haran, and in the going 
down to Egypt. At the Exodus He destroys the first-born 
of the Egyptians, and delivers His people with mighty signs, 
and becomes their king." 


1 In due connection with the Memra both terms occur. Thus in Num. xxiii. 


is the Shekinah, the one regarding the 
active operation of God, the other His 
visible presence. The Shekinah, how- 
ever, is rarely mentioned in the Tar- 
gums [e. g. Ex. xxv. 8; Num. vy. 3, 
“the Shekinah of the Lord” (Onkelos); 
and more frequently in the later Tar- 
gums. Cf. Buxtf. Lex. Rabb. s.v. Gen. 
ix. 27, already quoted, p.111n. 1 offers 
the most remarkable example of the 
introduction of the Shekinah], but fre- 
quently in Zohar ; while the title Wemra 
is exclusively confined to the Targums, 
or immediately derived from it. In 
some parallel passages of the Targum 


21, Onkelos paraphrases: The Word of 
the Lord shall be their help, and the 
Shekinah of their King among them; 
and Pseudo-Jonathan : The Word of 
the Lord shall be their help, and the 
triumphal strain of King Messias shall 
sound amongthem. Again, in Ex. xx. 
24, the Shekinah in Onkelos replaces 
the Word of the Lord in Pseudo-Jona- 
than. And conversely in Ex. xix. 17; 
Deut. xxiii. 14, Shekinah in the Pseudo- 
Jonathan answers to the Word of the 
Lord in Onkelos. 

The first of the passages just quoted 
has been brought forward to establish 


“i 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIATI. 163 

The representation of the nature and functions of the 

Word in Philo is far removed from the sim- 
plicity of this recognition of an outward Me- ἢ ἢ 
diator. Various influences combined to mod- ὠὀ 7%e variety and 
ify his doctrine, and the enunciation of it is PHI eat δὲ 
perplexed and inconsistent. The very title, 
Logos, with its twofold meaning, speech and reason, was a 
fruitful source of ambiguity ;* and this first confusion was 
increased by the tempting analogies of Greek philosophy 
in conflict with the Hebrew faith in the absolute unity of 
God. Asa necessary consequence, the Logos is described 
under the most varied forms. At one time it is the mind 
of God in which the archetypal world exists, as the design 
of an earthly fabric in the mind of the architect? * At an- 
other time it is the inspirer of holy men, the spring and 
food of virtue. At another time it is the Son of God, the 
First-born, all-pervading, all-sustaining, and yet personally 
distinct from God. At another time the conception of two 
distinct divine personalities yields to the ancient dogma, 
and the Logos, while retaining its divine attributes, is re- 
garded only as a special conception of God, as reasoning, 
acting, creating. 

The contrast between the wavering con- 
ceptions of Philo and the simple statement 
of the Targumists is seen clearly in the pas- 
sages where they recognize in common the presence of 


Egypt. 


Philo's interpre- 
tations compared 
with those in the 
Targums., 


the identity of the Word of the Lord 
with Messiah, [Schottgen iii. 5,6; Ber- 
tholdt § 24. The passage quoted by the 


cent.) on the authority of R. Huna 
(7290 A.D.) contain nothing to identify 
Him with the Word or Shekinah. 


latter (note 3) from Targ. Jon. Is. xlii.1, 
is differently given by Schottgen iii. 
431; in quo Verbum meum (majestas 
mea) sibi complacet]; but even if it were 
less equivocal it could have but little 
weight against the whole tenor of early 
Jewish writings. Not only is the pro- 
posed interpretation doubtful, but else- 
where unparalleled. It is worthy of 
notice that the eight names of Messiah 
given in the Midrash Mischle (xiith 


Compare the names given by Philo 
de confus. ling. § 28. The union of the 
Shekinah with Messiah is taught in 
Zohar. Cf. Bertholdt, § 24, n. 3. 

1The distinction is recognized in 
the contrast of the λόγος προφορικός 
and the λόγος ἐνδιάϑετος, de vita Mos. 
iii. 12 (ii. p. 154). 

2 De mund. opif. § 4 ff. (i. pp. 4 ff.) 
The whole passage is most characteristic 
and instructive. 


164 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAII. 
the Logos in the narrative of the Pentateuch. Philo « 
speaks of the Logos as that through which the world was 
created,’ but at the same time as an “instrument” (ὄργανον), 
“which still, in after time, the pilot of the universe handles 
as a rudder, and so steers the course of all things.”*? The 
angel which met Hagar was “the divine Word,” but 
Hagar is said to be “routine learning” (ἡ μέση καὶ ἐγκύκλιος 
παιδεία), Which twice flying from the presence of sovereign 
virtue (Sarah) is brought back by the divine Word to the 
house of her Lord* Jacob met the Word of God at 
Bethel, even one of those “Words which God sends to 
bring help to the lovers of virtue.® “An angel, a servant 
of God, the Word, changed the name of Jacob, but the 
unalterable God changed the name of Abraham.” ὃ... The 
Word was the cloud which separated the hosts of Israel 
and Egypt, to whom “the Father who created (γεννήσας) 
the universe assigned the special gift, that standing on the 
confines He should separate the created (τὸ γενόμενον) from 
Him that made it. The same is at once the suppliant of 
the mortal ever pining («ypaivovros) for the incorruptible, 
and the envoy of the prince to the subject. Moreover, he 
rejoices in the gift, and, magnifying himself, sets it forth, 
saying: And I stood between the Lord and you, being 
neither unbegotten as God, nor begotten as you, but a 
mean between the extremes, in contact (ὁμηρεύων) with 
both.”? 

Even from these examples —and they might be multi- 
plied indefinitely — it is evident that Philo had no uniform 


1 De Monard. § 5 (i. p. 225). 

2 Leg. Alleg. i. § 9 (i. p. 47); 111. § 81 
(i. p. 106). De Cherub. § 35 (i. p. 162). 

8 De Migr. Abr. § 1 (i. p. 487). 

4 De Cherub. § i. (i. p. 198) 
Prof. § 37 (i. p. 576). 

5 De Somn. § 12, i. Ὁ. 081. The plural 
form (Adyot) is worthy of notice. It 
occurs in the simplest sense in Leg. 
Alleg. § 62, i. p. 122, where of ἄγγελοι 
καὶ λόγοι are contrasted with αὐτὸς 6 


Cf. de 


ὧν. The treatise de post. Cain. §§ 6, 
25, 26 (i. pp. 229. 241, 242) contains a 
very interesting series of examples of 
its usage. 

6 De mut. nom. ὃ 13 (i. p. 591). 

7 Quis rer. div. har. § 42 (i. p. 501). 
With the language here used compare 
the title δεύτερος ϑεός quoted from 
Philo by Eusebius, Prep. Ev. vii. 18. 
This title is indeed implied in Leg. 
Alleg. § 73 (i. p. 128). 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 165 


and distinct doctrine of the Logos. The term in its man- 
ifold senses continually rules his thoughts, 
and he deals with this more frequently than _™ the midst of 


the variety of Phi- 


with the great idea to which it was properly W's opinions, one 
; sais general tendency 

applied. An apparent analogy, a striking — maybe traced. 
incident, a passing phrase is sufficient to 
modify his statement and direct the course of his reason- 
ing. With him speculation had arrived at that stage 
in which language domineers over thought. But though 
it is impossible to decide absolutely that Philo attrib- 
uted to the Word a personal and divine essence, and still 
more to bring all his statements into harmony with one 
dogmatic scheme, there is, nevertheless, a general ten- 
dency towards one issue among the conflicting details 
which his writings contain, one great current of thought 
which can be traced throughout them in spite of the mani- 
fold eddies by which it is disturbed. When he writes 
most independently he assigns to the Logos divine 
attributes! and personal action ;? and at the same time he 
affirms, in the most decided manner, the absolute indivisi- 
bility of the divine nature The Word is neither an 
emanation nor a created being, but rather God Himself 
under a particular form, conceived as the source and centre 
of vital energy. Combined with his other teaching, this 
view naturally leads to the conception of a twofold 
personality in the Godhead. Even while he shrinks from 
the recognition of such a doctrine,* his arguments must 
have led men to reflect upon it; and in this way, without 
laying the actual foundation for the truth, he prepared the 
ground on which it might be laid, 

But the preparation which Philo made for the Gospel 


1 As the creation de Monarch. § 5, i. 658; εἰκὼν ϑεοῦ, de mund. opis. § 8, 
ii. 225, and preservation of the Universe, i. 6, ete. ; ἡμῶν τῶν ἀτελῶν Seds, Leg. 
Frag. ii. p. 655. ὃ ϑεῖος Adyos περιές Alleg. § 18, i. 128; ὕπαρχος de Somn. 
χει τὰ πάντα Kal πεπλήρωκεν. Cf. § 41, i. 656; ef. 1. 808. 

Quis rer. div. her. § 88, i. p. 499, de Pro- 
Sugis, § 20, i. p. 562. 
2As the ἀρχιερεύς, de Somn. § 87, 4 De Somn. § 89, 1. 655. 


8 Quod det. potiori. insid. § 24, i. 209. 


166 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


was purely theological and speculative. His idea of the 
Logos was wholly disconnected from all 
Yet the doctrine Messianic hopes.’ It was in fact, to a great 


of the Word re- : 3 
mained wholly un- ΘΟ ΘΟ, ἃ philosophical substitute for them. 


fiteMeaa. Philo may have conceived of the Word as 
acting through Messiah, but not as one with 
Him. The lines of thought which pointed to the action 
of asecond Person in the Godhead, and the victories of 
some future human conqueror, were not even parallel, but 
divergent. It was reserved for St. John to combine the 
antithetic truths in one short divine phrase. Then, for the 
first time, God, Man, Shekinah, Word, were placed to- 
gether in the most simple and sublime union: Zhe Word 
was God, and the Word was made man and 
tabernacled among us.’ 

Little still remains to be said as to the relation which 
the Messianic hope, which has been now 
traced in its various forms and bearings, bore 
to its fulfilment. One or two points, however, which are 

Se often overlooked in a mass of detail, may 
ness of the Jewish Geserve some notice. And the first thing 
ie which must strike any one who has observed 
the manifold sources from which the several traits of 
Messiah’s person have been drawn, is the fragmentariness 
of the special conceptions formed of Him. Most of the 
separate elements, of which the whole truth consisted, 
were known, but. they were kept distinct. One feature 
was taken for the complete image; and the only temper 
which excluded all error was that of simple and devout 
expectation. 

Yet while the results of the long and anxious thought 
of the people were thus partial and uncombined, each suc- 


John t. 14. 


General summary. 


1 On this point the testimony of Ori- λόγον εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ δεοῦ, ὡς ὁ 


gen is most important, ὁ. Cels. ii. 81, Κέλσος εἴρηκε. ... . 
ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ πολλοῖς ᾿Ιουδαίοις καὶ 
σοφοῖς γε ἐπαγγελομένοις εἶναι συμ- 5 Cf. Apoc. xxi. 8 (shakan, habitavit 


βαλὼν οὐδενὸς ἀκήκοα ἐπαινοῦντος τὸ -- σκηνόω, Jud. viii. 11, ete. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 167 


ceeding generation added something to the heritage of 
the past, and made a wider faith possible. 

Step by step the majesty of Messiah was ,10 Progressive. 
traced in nobler lines, in Henoch and Esdras}; 

and if the subtle speculations of the Hellenists on the 
action and revelation of God had no direct Messianic 
application, they familiarized the minds of men with 
thoughts essential to the apprehension of the doctrine of 
an Incarnation. 

“Everything was ready” for the work, but the work of 
the Spirit was not yet done. The essentially 
divine nature of Messiah was not acknowl- 
edged. The import of His human nature was not felt. 
The full character of His work with regard to man, to the 
nation, to the world, was not apprehended. The con- 
sciousness of personal sin, turning the mind of the believer 
to the thought of a new birth, was hardly awakened. The 
adoption of the nations to be joint-heirs with Israel to a 
spiritual kingdom must have seemed impossible till man’s 
persona] relation to God was fully recognized. And the 
wider effects of redemption could be regarded only as 
material blessings till the full bearing of redemption on 
mankind was realized. Yet men were everywhere “ feeling 
after” the truth which lay near to them. And as it is 
impossible to conceive that any Jew could have pictured 
to himself Christ as He really came, so it is equally impos- 
sible to imagine any other Saviour, who could have 
satisfied all the wants which were felt at the time of His 
coming. 

Times of triumph and sorrow, the government of judges, 
kings, and priests, the open manifestation of 
divine power and the brilliant display of πο prenara 
human courage, the teaching of prophets and 
the teaching of experience, the concentration of Eastern 
meditation and the activity of Western thought, the skepti- 
cism of learning and the enthusiasm of hope, each form of 
discipline and each phase of speculation, had contributed 


Its defects. 


168 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAT. 


to bring out into clear forms upon one narrow stage the 
spiritual capacities and aspirations of men. Everything 
was ready, and a brief space was sufficient for the prophetic 
work of Messiah. Disciples were waiting to recognize 
Him; enemies had already rejected Him. His words 
found everywhere a direct and characteristic application. 
His presence was an instantaneous test of all that was 
partial or transitory. The simple announcement of His 
Advent was the Gospel; the record of His works and 
words in various scenes and before various classes, the ful- 
ness of its special adaptations, not for one time only, but 
for all times. For the manifoldness of the elements which 
were combined in the Jewish people at Christ’s coming 
provided not only for the rapidity of its comprehension, 
but also fer the typical completeness of its history. And 
the narratives of this history, in their origin and growth, in 
their common harmony and special differences, in their 
fruitful combinations and distinct individuality, will now 
claim our attention. The voice and power of the Saviour 
lives in them, and it is no false reverence which bids us 
“fly to the Gospels as unto the Body” (capxi) — the very 
outward manifestation — “ of Christ.” * 


1 Ign. ad Philad. ὃ. 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 169 


NOTES ON CHAPTER I. 


NOTE I. — MESSIANIC PROPHECIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT COM- 
PARED WITH THE CORRESPONDING INTERPRETATIONS OF 


JEWISH COMMENTATORS. 


Of the ninety-four passages from the Old Testament which are quoted 
in a Messianic sense by the Apostolic writers, I have not been able to trace 
more than forty-four which are interpreted in the same manner in Jewish 
writings. Many of these, however, are important, and all are interesting 
as throwing a general light upon the system of Jewish interpretation. 


Isai. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23, 24. 
Mic. v. 2; — ii. 6. 
ser Xxx, 155 — ii. 18. 
Isai. xl. 3; — iii. 3. 
— ix. 12; — iy. 15, 16. 
— liii. 4; | — viii. 17. 
Mal. iii. 1; — xi. 10. 


Not applied to Messiah by the Jews: 
Schottg. ii. 159; nor yet the name 
Immanuel. The words were referred 
at an early time to Hezekiah: Cf. 
Just. Δ. Dial. δὲ 68, 71,77. Sunhedr. 
98. Pearson On the Creed, pp. 323— 
824 (ed. Cambr.). Hengstenberg, 
Christology, i. p. 63 (Eng. Tr.). 
Explained in the same way in Tar- 
gum (ad loc.). Pirke R. Eliezer. So 
also Kimchi and Abarbanel (Schottg. 
ji. 213). Cf. Tertull. ¢. Jud. xiii. 
Just. M. Apol. i. § 34. It is doubtful 
whether any other interpretation was 
ever current: Hengstenberg, i. 187. 
[Cf. Zohar, ad Gen. 100 (Schotte. ii. 
448); and ad Exod. 3 (Schottg. i. 4)]. 
[Cf. Pesikta Sotarta, 58, ad Num. 
xxiv. 17 (Schottg. ii. 97; 141).] 

Not till Jaliut Sim. ii. 182 (Schotte. 
ii. 160.) 

Sanhedr. 98. Schotte. ii. 183. For 
the history of the interpretation, 
compare Hengstenbereg, ii. 311 ff. 
Tunchuma, 66 (Schottg. i. 111): God 
said: As there were spies in the Old 
Testament, so shall there be in the 
times of the New Testament, a mes- 
senger to prepare my way before me, 
as itis written. Cf. Schemoth R. 131. 
Debarim Τὰ. 256, in connection with 
Is. xl. 4 (Schottg. ii. 224). 


15 


170 THE 


Tsai. xlii. 1—4; 


Zech. ix. 9; 


Ps. exvii. 22; 


— cix.1; 


— xxi. 1, 18; 


Isai. liv. 13; 


— lii. 1; 
Zech. xii. 10; 
Joel ii. 28—32; 
Gen. xxii. 18; 
ῬΒ 1,91 

ἘΞ ἢ: 


Isai. xlix. 6; 
Amos ix. 11, 12; 


Isai. viii. 14; 
— lii. 7; 


Ps. xviii. 4; 


Tsai. lix. 20, 21; 


JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


Matt. xii. 18—21.S0 Targum. Kimchi, Abarbanel. 


— XXxi. 5. 


— xxi. 42. 


— xxii. 44, 


— xxvii. 35, 46. 


John vi. 45. 


— xii. 38. 

— xix. 37. 
Acts ii. 17—21. 
— iii. 25. 

— iv. 25, 26. 
— xiii. 33. 


— 47. 
— xv. 16, 17. 


Rom. ix. 32, 33. 
—x. 15. 


—x.18. 


— xi. 26, 27. 


Cf. Midrash Tehillim, 23 (Schottg. ii. 
113), Pesikta R. (Schottg. ii. 130). 
Cf. Hengstenberg, ii. 197. ; 
Sanhedr. 98; Berachoth, 56; Pirke R. 
Eliezer, 31 (Schottg. ii. 220). In 
Midr. Scham. 66, there is a compari- 
son of the first Goel (Moses: Ex. iv. 
20) with the second (Schottg. 1. c.). 
Cf. Bereshith R. 98 (Schottg. ii. 1045) ; 
Schottg. i. 169; ii. 136, 139. 

No trace in old writers (Schottg. i. 
173, 174), but so applied in Zohar and 
later commentators: Schottg. ii. 87, 
88, 106, 107, 140, 290, 334, 407, 609. 
Midr. Tehil. ad loc. (Schottg. i. 192; 
ii. 246). Bereshith R. 83, ad Gen. 
XxXxviii. 18, quotes vy. 3 of Messiah 
(Schottg. i. 192). 

The Psalm generally was so applied 
in later writings: Pesikta R. Midr. 
Tehil. 

Pesikta R.; Bereshith R.; Schemoth 
R.; Debarim R. (Schottg. ii. 185, 65, 
67). 

No trace; but see Sanhedr. 98, quoted 
above. 

Succa 52, of Messiah the son of Jo- 
seph. So Kimchi. 

Siphri (Schottg. ii, 210). Bammid- 
bar R. 231. Tanchuma, 14. 
Bammidbar R. 184 (Schotte. ii. 67) 
gives a different interpretation. 
Mechilta 3. Pirke Τὸ. Eliezer, 28. 
Avoda Sara, 3 (Schottg. ii. 227, 228). 
Midr. Tehil.; Bereshith R. (Schottg. 
ii. 228, 104). 

Bereshith Τὰ. (Schottg. ii. 102). 
Sanhedr. 96. The name of Messiah 
is said to be filius cadentis. 

Sanhedr. 38 (Schottg. ii. 160). 
Pesikta R. Vajikra R. Bereshith R. 
(Schottg. ii. 179, 100). 

No trace in early writings. Zohar 
(Schotte. ii. 230). 

Sanhedr.98. Bereshith R. 37 (Schottg. 
ii. 187, 184). 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 171 


Isai. xi. 10; Rom. xy. 12. Targum. Sanhedr. 93. Rashe. Kim- 
chi. Abarbanel (Schottg. ii. 161). 
— Ixiv. 4; —1Oor.ii.9. Pesikta R. Schemoth R. (Schottg. ii. 
195). 
— x. 4. Cf. Targ. Isai. xvi. 1. 
BS. Cixi; — xy. 25. Cf. supra. 


Levit. xxvi. 11, 12; 2 Cor. vi. 16. Pesikta Sotarta, 34. Tanchuma 
(Schottg. ii. 150). 


Deut. xxi. 23; Gal. iii. 13. Cf. Schottg. ad loc. 
Isai. liv. 1; — iv. 27. Gibborim, 49 (Schottg. i. 749). Bere- 
shith R. 37 (Schottg. ii. 884). 
— lvii. 19; pbs Welz. Only in Zohar: Schottg. ii. 115. 
Ps. sive 6,715 Hebr. i. 8, 9. Targum. So Aben Ezra (Schottg. i. 
924). 
Isai. viii. 17, 18. — ii. 15. Cf. Schottg. i. 933? from Isai. xlii. 1. 
Ps. xciv. 7—11. — iii. 7—11. Midr. Tehil. 36. Shir hashirim, 25 
(Schottg. ii. 243). 
— cix. 4; — v. 6. No Jewish writer regarded Melchiz- 


edek as a type of Christ (Schottg. i. 
949). Cf. Schottg. ii. 645 for a spu- 
rious passage from Bereshith 10. 


Jer. xxxi. 31—34, —viii.8—12. Pesikta R. (Schottg. i. 970). 

Hab. ii. 3, 4; — x. 37, 38. Sanhedr. 97 (Schott. ii. 215). 

Hage. ii. 7; — xii. 26. Debarim RK, 250 (Schottg. ii. 217; ef. 
75). 

Tsai. xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 3. Targun? Cf. Schottg. ii. 170. So 
Rashe. 

— liii. 9, 4; — li. 22, 24. Cf. supra. 

Dan. vii. 13; Apoc. i. 7,13. Sanhedr. 98 (Schottg, i. 1151). 

Zech. xii. 10—12. —i.7. Cf. supra. 

Ps. ii. 9; — ii. 27. Cf. supra. 


The above list is derived almost exclusively from Schottgen, and not 
from the original authorities, nor have I verified the references, but it will 
be found, I trust, sufficiently accurate to serve as the basis of further in- 
vestigations. The history of the later Jewish doctrine of the Messiah is 
at present as confused and unsatisfactory as that of earlier date. 

Since the preceding chapter was written I have read Jost’s later history 
(Geschichte des Judenthums, i. Leipsic, 1857). The account which he gives 
of the Jewish Messianic hope at the time of our Lord (pp. 394—402) seems 
to me to omit several important features; and while the Christian scholar 
will gratefully acknowledge his candor and largeness of view, yet his con- 
ception of the rise of Christianity is necessarily imperfect in its essence. 
His arguments have not induced me to change any of my conclusions; 
and, in spite of his criticism, I still think that Ewald has apprehended 
most fully the nature of the clements in Judaism, which contributed to 
form the foundation of a Catholic Church. 


172 THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 


NOTE II. —THE CHRISTOLOGY OF THE SAMARITANS. 


The narrative of St. John (6. iv.), and the ready welcome which was 
afterwards given by the people of Samaria to the teaching of the Apostles 
(Acts viii. 4 ff.), combine to invest the Messianic expectations of the 
Samaritans with great interest. And this interest is further increased by 
the fact that Simon Magus, the most influential false teacher of the first 
age, was himself a native of a village of Samaria (Just. M. Apol. i. 26; 
Clem. Hom. ii. 22), and found the readiest acceptance of his prophetic 
claims among the Samaritans (Acts viii. 9,10; Just. /.c.). Little remains, 
however, of the scanty Samaritan literature, and that only in an imperfect 
and altered form (Gesenius, Anal. Oriental. i. 1824; Jost, Gesch. d. Juden- 
thums, i. 83 ff.). But the same causes which confined the literary activity 
of an isolated people, tended to preserve their traditions and usages un- 
altered; and at an early period an attempt was made to derive some clear 
knowledge of the opinions of the Church from the testimony of its priests. 
The correspondence was opened by J. C. Scaliger in 1589, and was con- 
tinued by some English scholars in 1672—1689, by Ludolf, 1685, and by 
Syly. de Sacy in the present century. The whole correspondence has been 
collected and edited by Sylv. de Sacy in an essay in WVotices et extraits des 
MSS. dela Biblioth. du Roi, xii. 1 ff. 1831, which still remains the classical 
authority upon the subject. (Cf. Sylv. de Sacy, Mémoire sur Vétat actuel 
des Samaritains, Paris, 1812) 

In the English correspondence the doctrine of Messiah — Hashab or 
Hathab, i. e., the Converter, at present Hl Muhdy, t. e., the Guide (Robins. 
ii. 278), in the Samaritan nomenclature — forms a prominent subject. In 
a letter written to the English in 1672 the Samaritans ask, ‘‘ What is the 
name of Hashab who shall appear? and when shall we have consolation, 
and come from under the hands of the sons of Ishmael?” (Sylv. de Sacy, 
pp. 181,191.) In the reply reference is made to Gen. iii. 15; xlix. 10; 
Deut. xviii. 15; Numb. xxiv. 17. The Samaritans in answer express sur- 
prise that no mention is made of Gerizim (p. 209); but they recognize the 
application of the prophecies, with the exception of Gen. iii. 15; xlix. 10, 
and speak of the expected Deliverer as “a flaming furnace, and a lamp 
of fire (Gen. xv. 17), to whom the nations shall be subjected.”” Our doc- 
tors have taught us, they add, that “this prophet will arise, and that all 
people will be subdued unto Him, and believe on Him, and on the holy 
law, and on Mount Gerizim; and that the religion of Moses will appear 
with glory; and that the first name of this prophet who shall rise will be 
[M.], that he will die and be buried near to Joseph the son of Phorath 
(i. e., N7D 72, Gen. xlix. 22); and that the tabernacle will be brought to 
sizht by his ministry (which was supposed to be hidden on Mount Geri- 
zim. Cf. Friedrich, de Christol. Samar. p.76), and be established on Mount 
Gerizim.” In the later correspondence with Sylv. de Sacy (1808) it is said: 
“The doctrine of Hathab, who will come and manifest His spirit, is a 
ereat mystery. We shall be happy when He comes. We have prodigies 


THE JEWISH DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH. 173 


by which we shall recognize them, and we know His name [Messiah] 
according to the Rabbis. That which you say of Shiloh is true; he hated 
the law of Moses” (p. 30). On this last point the Samaritan doctrine is 
especially worthy of notice. The allusion to Shiloh (Gen. xlix. 10) is not 
applied to the Messiah, but to an enemy of the Law, perhaps, it is said, to 
Solomon (p. 29). These particulars, derived from letters, are confirmed in 
detail by a conversation which Dr. Wilson held with De Sacy’s correspond- 
ent on the Samaritan Christology, but the conversation furnished no 
fresh information on the subject (Lands of the Bible, ii. 51 ff.). 

It must be allowed, however, that beyond the mere general expectation 
of a deliverer to restore the glory of the Law upon Gerizim, based ap- 
parently on Deut. xviii. 15, little else is certainly established by this evi- 
dence. The form in which the inquiries were suggested may be supposed 
in several cases to have modified the answers. On the other hand, nothing 
can be more arbitrary than the statement of Br. Bauer, who supposes that 
the Samaritans borrowed the notion of Messiah entirely from the later 
Jews. Cf. Friedrich, Discussionum de Christologia Samar. liber, Lipsix, 1821. 
Gesenius, de Samar. Theologia, Halle, 1824. 

At present, the miserable remnant of the Samaritans who still occupy 
a few houses at Nablous appears to be fast hastening to extinction, perse- 
cuted and demoralized (Bargés, Les Samar. de Naplouse, Paris, 1855. Jost, 
Gesch. d. Judenth., pp. 79 ff. Robinson, Biblical Researches, ii. 275 ff.; iii. 
129 ff. Ed. 2). 


15* 


CH APN: aie 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


‘H τῶν πρεσβυτέρων παρακαταϑήκη διὰ τῆς γραφῆς λαλοῦσα ὑπουργῷ χρῆται 
τῷ γράφοντι πρὸς τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἐντευξομένων. --- CLEM. ALEX. 


A DISTINCT conception of the spirit of the Apostolic age 
is necessary for a right understanding of the 


The spiritual 
position of the 
Apostles incompati- 
ble with the design 
of forming a per- 
manent Christian 
literature, and yet 


relation of the Gospel to the Gospels — of 
the divine message to the lasting record — 
at the rise of Christianity." 
placed in so clear a light the fulness and 


Experience has 


comprehensiveness of the Christian Serip- 
tures, that it is natural to suppose that they must have oc- 
cupied from the first the position which the Church has 
assigned to them. But this idea is an anachronism both 


in fact and in thought. 


The men who were enabled to 


penetrate most deeply into the mysteries of the new reve- 
lation, and to apprehend with the most vigorous energy 
the change which it was destined to make in the world, 
seem to have placed little value upon the written witness 


1 The literature of the subject is so 
extensive that it would be impossible 
to give even a general summary of it. 
Many of the most important essays will 
be mentioned in the course of the 
chapter. Those of Gieseler (Historisch- 
kritischer Versuch iiber die Enstehung 
ὡ . der ΘΟ] οι, Evangelien, 
Leipzig, 1818) and Ewald (Jahrbicher, 
1848, ff.) represent with the greatest 
power the extreme form of the 
“oral” and “documentary” hypoth- 
eses. Thiersch has some good general 


remarks in his Versuch zur Herstellung 
des historischen Standpunkts fur die 
Kritik. d. Neutest. Schrift. (Erlangen, 
1845), and the tract by which it was fol- 
lowed, Einige Worte tiber εἰ. Aechth. d. 
Neutest. Schrift. (Erlangen, 1846), but 
with many exaggerations. The object 
of the present chapter is rather to ex- 
cite and guide inquiry than to discuss 
fully the question of the origin of the 
Gospels in all its bearings —a subject 
far too vast for the space which can be 
given to it. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 175 


to words and acts which still, as it were, lived among them. 
They felt as none else ever can feel the greatness of the 
crisis in which they were placed, and the calm progress of 
common life appeared to be forever interrupted by the 
spiritual revolution in which they were called to take part. 
The “coming age” to which they looked was not one of 
arduous conflict, but of completed triumph. The close of 
the old dispensation and the consummation of the new 
were combined in one vision. The outward “fashion of 
the world” — the transitory veil which alone remained — 
was “passing away.” The long development of a vast 
future was concentrated in the glory of its certain issue. 
But while everything shows that the Apostles made no 
conscious provision for the requirements of after times, in 
which the life of the Lord would be the subject of remote 
tradition, they were enabled to satisfy a want which they 
did not anticipate. The same circumstances 
which obscured their view of the immediate 
future gave to the time in which they lived 
its true significance. They pierced beneath the temporal 
and earthly to the spiritual and eternal. Men wrote his- 
tory as it had never been written, whose present seemed 
to have no natural sequel, and unfolded doctrine with far- 
seeing wisdom, while they looked eagerly for that divine 
presence in which all partial knowledge should be done 
away. That which was in origin most casual became in 
effect most permanent by the presence of a divine energy ; 
and the most striking marvel in the scattered writings of 
the New Testament is the perfect fitness which they ex- 
hibit for fulfilling an office of which their authors appear 
themselves to have had no conception. 

The intensity of the hope cherished by  7enationalchar- 


acter of the later 
the first Christian teachers was not more pine NS 
unfavorable to conscious literary efforts on from literatures 
their part than their original national char- 
acter. It was most unlikely that men who had been ac- 


customed to a system of training generally, if not exclu- 


favorable to its 
Jormation. 


176 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


sively oral, should have formed any design to commit to 
writing a complete account of the history or of the doc- 
trines of the Gospel. The whole influence of Palestinian 
habits was most adverse to such an undertaking. The 
rules of Scriptural interpretation, the varied extensions 
of the Law, and the sayings of the elders, were preserved 
either by oral tradition, or perhaps, in some degree, in 
secret rolls, till the final dispersion of the Jewish nation 
led to the compilation of the Mishna. Nothing less than 
the threatened destruction of the traditional faith occa- 
sioned the abandonment of the great rule of the schools. 
“Commit nothing to writing” ' was the characteristic prin- 
ciple of the earlier Rabbins, and even those who, like 
Gamaliel, were familiar with Greek learning, faithfully ob- 
served it. Nor could it be otherwise. The Old Testament 
was held to be the single and sufficient source of truth and 
wisdom, the reflection of divine knowledge, and the em- 
bodiment of human feeling. The voice of the teacher 
might enforce or apply its precepts, but it admitted no 
definite additions. The various avenues to an independent 
literature were closed by the engrossing study of the Law; 
and an elaborate ritualism occupied the place of a popular 
exposition of its precepts. The learned had no need for 
writing, and the people had no need for books. The Scrip- 
tures contained infinite subjects for meditation in their 
secret depths; and the practice of Judaism furnished an 
orthodox commentary upon their general purport, open 
alike to all, clearly intelligible and absolutely authoritative. 
Tradition was dominant in the schools, and from the 
schools it passed to the nation; for the same 

ev influence which affected the character of the 
See among te teachers must have been felt still more pow- 
erfully by the great mass of the Jews. In 

their case the want of means was added to the want of 
inclination. In the remoter regions of the north, the im- 
pediments to the simplest learning were still greater than 


1 Cf. Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums, i. 867. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 17% 


those which prevailed at Jerusalem. The school of Ti- 
berias grew up only after the fall of the Temple; and the 
faithful zeal of the Galileans may be rightly connected 
with their intellectual simplicity. To descend one step 
further: the art of writing itself was necessarily rare 
among the peasantry, and the instinct of composition pro- 
portionately rarer. From all these circumstances, from 
their nation, their class, their province, their education, the 
first Christians were primarily unfitted for forming any 
plan of a comprehensive religious literature. If they were 
writers, it could only have been by the providential influ- 
ence of circumstances, while they were oral teachers by 
inclination and habit. 
But it may be rightly said, that such obstacles as these 
are only important when they fall in with 
Ρ : 1. These general 
others which lie deeper; for men become _ otstactes to the con- 
ereat writer’, even in common life, not so ee 
much by discipline as by instinct. In the case jv Poe mreierr 
of the Apostles, however, these further ob- 6 aa 
stacles were not wanting; their external dis- 
inclination for literature was unremoved, if not increased, 
by their special work. Both from the nature of their 
charge and the character of their hearers, they sought 
other means of fulfilling their great commission than such 
as books afforded. Their Master enjoined on them during 
His presence, and at the moment of His departure, to 
“preach the Gospel.” And while they fulfilled the office 
for which they were fitted, no less by habit than by the 
effusion of the Holy Spirit, they could not have felt that 
more was needed for the permanent establishment of the 
Christian society. “How shall men believe without a 
preacher” (κηρύσσων) ? is the truest expression of the feel- 
ing and hope of the Apostles. They cherished the lively 
image of the Lord’s life and teaching without any written 
outline from His hand; and they might well hope that the 
Spirit which preserved the likeness in their hearts might 
fix it in the hearts of others, Christianity was contrasted 


178 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


with Judaism as a dispensation of the Spirit and not of 
the letter; the laws of which were written not on tables 
of stone, but on the souls of believers. The sad experience 
of ages has alone shown the necessity that an unchanging 
record should coéxist with a living body: in the first gen- 
eration, the witness of word and the embodiment of the 
word in practice belonged to the same men. 
It must not, however, be supposed that this tendency 
to preach rather than to write was any 
angie’ geet, drawback to the final completeness of the 
ἤρα of 28 Apostolic Gospel. It was, in fact, the very 
condition and pledge of its completeness. 
Naturally speaking, the experience of oral teaching was 
required in order to bring within the reach of writing the 
vast subject of the Life of Christ; and it cannot be urged 
that any extraordinary provision was made for the fulfil- 
ment of a task which is now rightly felt to have been of 
the utmost importance. The Gospel was a growth, and 
not an instantaneous creation. The Gospels’ were the 
results, and not the foundation of the Apostolic preaching. 
Without presuming to decide how far it would have been 
possible, according to the laws of divine action, to produce 
in the Apostles an immediate sense of the relation which 
the history of the Life of Christ occupied towards the 
future Church, it is evident that the occasion and manner 
in which they wrote were the results of time and previous 
labor. The wide growth of the Church furnished them 
with an adequate motive for adding a written record to 
the testimony of their living words; and the very form 
of the Gospels was only determined by the experience of 
teaching. The work of an Evangelist was thus not the 
simple result of divine inspiration or of human thought, 
but rather the complex issue of both when applied to such 


1 By the Gospels in this connection I respects, as exhibiting the-result of the 
understand the first three “‘Synoptic” peculiar experience of one Apostle, 
Gospels. The Gospel of St. John and not the first and common experi- 
stands on a different footing in some ence of all. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 179 


a selection of Christ’s words and works as the varied 
phases of the Apostolic preaching had shown to be best 
suited to the wants of men. The primary Gospel was 
proved, so to speak, in life, before it was fixed in writing. 
Out of the countless multitude of Christ’s acts, those were 
gathered, in the ministry of twenty years, which were seen 
to have the fullest representative significance for the exhi- 
bition of His divine Life. The oral collection thus formed 
became in every sense coincident with the “Gospel;” and 
our Gospels are the permanent compendium of its contents. 
This, then, was the first great stage in the Apostles’ 
work — the first step in the composition of οι vance 
the Gospels—to adapt the lessons which recognized ὃν te 
they learned with Christ to the requirements re 
of the growing Church. Every detail of their conduct tends 
to indicate the clearness with which they apprehended the 
requirements of their office, and fulfilled them by the guid- 
ance of the promised Spirit. They remained together at 
Jerusalem in close communion for a period long enough 
to shape a common narrative, and to fix it with requisite 
consistency. They recognized that their message was 
popular and historic. The place of instruction was the 
synagogue and the market-place, and not the student’s 
chamber. The qualification for the Apostolate was per- 
sonal acquaintance with Christ; and St. Paul admitted 
the condition, and affirmed that he had fulfilled it. Of the 
great majority of the Apostles, all that we know certainly 
is, that they were engaged in this first charge of instruct- 
ing orally the multitudes who were waiting to welcome 
their tidings. The common work of “the 
twelve” was prayer, and the ministry of the 
word, though the labors of all are summed 
up in the acts of two or three. The rest of the Apostles 
were engaged with St. Peter on the day of 
Pentecost, and guided by their teaching (δι- 
δαχή) the new converts. Signs were wrought 
by their hands to arrest the attention of their hearers 


Acts vi. 4. 


Acts it. 57. 


Acts ti. 42. 


Acts τὶ. 43; v.12. 


180 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


(τέρατα) and symbolize the purport of their message 
(σημεῖα) --- the testimony of the resurrection. 


Acts iv. 33. . 
“ters v.18, 9,40, Lhe Apostles, in a body, were brought be- 
eek fore the council and beaten and forbidden to 


ee speak in the name of Jesus. And when all 
others were scattered, they remained stead- 
fastly at Jerusalem, watching the progress of the Church, 
supplying its wants, and regulating its discipline. Zhe 
twelve foundations of the wall of the city of 
God bore the names of the twelve Apostles. 
The earliest fathers saw in this energy of teaching the 
__ right fulfilment of the mission of the Apos- 
jane "=" tes, They were likened to the twelve gems 
upon the robes of the great High Priest, 
which should give light to the Church.’ “ The elders re- 
frained from writing,” it is said, “because they would not 
interrupt the care which they bestowed in teaching orally 
by the care of composition, nor expend in writing the time 
required for the preparation of their addresses.” ‘“ Perhaps 
they felt,” it is added, “that the functions of the speaker 
and writer were incompatible; and saw in books only the 
written confirmation for after time of the instruction which 
they conveyed at present.”? 
Common language bears unequivocal witness to the 
general prevalence of the same view. Till 
meme ew the end of the first century, and probably 
till the time of Justin Martyr, the “Gospel” 
uniformly signifies the substance and not the records of 
the Life of Christ. The evangelist was not the compiler 
of a history, but the missionary who carried the good 
tidings to fresh countries; the bearer, and not the author 
of the message. Timothy was charged to “fulfil the work 
of an evangelist ;” and evangelists are enumerated by St. 
Paul with apostles and prophets and teachers among the 
ministers of the Church.’ 


Apoc. xxi. 14. 


1 Tertull. adv. Mare. iv. 18, p. 229. 8 Eph. iv. 11; 2 Tim.iv.5. Cf. Euseb. 
2Clem. Alex. Eclog. Proph. § 27, H. EL. iii. 87. Neander, Pflanz. τι. Leit. 
p. 9901. i, 205 n. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 181 


In the mean time, if any written evidence for the facts 

of the Gospel were needed, it was found 
he Old Testa- 

already in the deep words of the prophets. ment te written 
In passing over to Christianity, the Jew did έν: 
not lay asideghis reverence for the Scriptures, but rather 
seemed to have gained the clew to their meaning which 
he had before wanted. “All the prophets” 
spoke of Christ, and to this central subject 
everything was referred. Nor was this conviction, how- 
ever difficult it may be for us to apprehend its intensity, 
partial either in its acceptance or in its action. The same 
appeals are made to the fulness of the Scriptures in the 
teaching of St. Paul and of the twelve, before the assem- 
blies of Jews and of Gentiles. The written Gospel of the 
first period of the Apostolic age was the Old Testament, 
interpreted by the vivid recollection of the Saviour’s 
ministry. The preaching of the Apostles 
was the unfolding “of the Law and ‘the 
prophets.” ἢ 

Even in the sub-apostolic age the same general feeling 
survived, though it was modified by the grow- 
ing organization of the Christian Church. jasscr jrecmeatty 
The knowledge of the teaching of Christ and τ vrais of ue 
of the details of His life were generally de- 
rived from tradition, and not from writings. The Gospels 
were not yet distinguished by this, their prophetic title. 
The Old Testament was still the great storehouse from 
which the Christian teacher derived the sources of consola- 
tion and conviction. And at the close of the second century, 
Treneus, after speaking of the Scriptures — the sum of the 
Apostolic teaching — as “the foundation and pillar of our 
faith,” speaks of a “tradition manifested in the whole 
world,” and “kept in the several churches through the 
succession of the presbyters.” ? 


Acts iti. 21, 34. 


Acts rxviit. 23. 


1 Compare Acts ii. 16, 25, 84 ; iii. 18, 2 The substance of this paragraph is 
21, 22, 24; iv. 11; viii. 82 ff.; ix. 22; xiii. wrought out in detail in The History of 
27, 83; XVii. 2, 3; xviii. 28. the Canon of the N. Testament, pp. 60 ff. 


16 


182 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


In one respect the testimony of Irenzeus — the connect- 
ποτ ing link of the east and west --- is extremely 
Gospel washistoric. Important, as distinctly recognizing the lis- 
This appears from 5 : : ae 
toric element in the Apostolic tradition. 
The great outlines of the life of Christ were received, he 
says, by barbarous nations without history (sine literis) by 
ancient tradition; and this combination of facts and 
doctrine existed from the first. “The Gospel,” — the sum, 
that is, of the oral teaching, — in the language of Ignatius, 
represents “the flesh (σάρξ) of Jesus.”* The Saviour’s 
personal presence was perpetuated in the living voice of 
His Church. At a still earlier time the writings of the 
New Testament contain abundant proof that the “Gospel” 
of the first age was not an abstract statement of dogmas, 
but a vivid representation of the truth, as seen in the 
details of the Saviouwr’s life. The Acts of the Apostles and 
the Apostolic letters —the first preaching and the subse- 
quent instruction of the Churches — show that the facts of 
the life of Christ were the rule by which the work of the 
Christian teacher was measured. 
The first common act of the ΠΣ body affirms in 
_ the most striking manner the position which 
ΚΟ ΜΕΝΑ they claimed to fill with regard to the Sa- 
Epaie viour’s ministry. Not only was it necessary 
that the Apostles should be “a witness of the resurrection,” 
but the qualification to give this testimony 
was to be derived from a continuous inter- 
course with the constant Teen to) of the Lord “from 
the baptism of John to the Ascension.” The Resurrection 
was the victory which the preacher had to proclaim; but 
the victory was the issue of a long battle, and found its 
outward completion in a triumph. Each event in the life 
of Christ contributed to the final issue; and as the busy 
prelude of word and work first introduced the closing 
scenes of suffering and glory, so was it in after times. The 
ministry of the Saviour was felt to be the necessary prepa- 


Acts i. 21, 22. 


1 Tren. c. her. iii. 4, 2. 2 Ignat. ad Phil. 5. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 183 


ration for His Passion. The Apostles could not but speak 
the things which they had seen and heard} 
The teaching and the acts of Christ were a 
necessary part of the message of men who were specially 
charged with the witness to his resurrection? 
The special records of the preaching of the Apostles 
confirm the impression which is produced 
(Ὁ) The records 
by the general description of their office. o the Apostolic 
The Gospel was felt to contain not only ἦα 
a doctrine (διδάξαι) but an announcement 
(ἀναγγεῖλαι) ; and the simplest expression of its contents was 
“the testimony of the resurrection of the 
Lord Jesus,’ or, in two words only, “the 
Lord Jesus.” When Philip preached at Samaria he spoke 
of “the things concerning the kingdom of 
God, and the name of Jesus Christ,’ of the 
outward establishment of the Church, and of 
the personal work of the Saviour; and the same twofold 
subject was the substance of St. Paul’s preaching at Rome, 
when he “received for two whole years all 
that came unto him.” Nor are examples 
wanting to show in what way the historic groundwork of 
the faith was laid. In the two cases in the Acts where 
the message of Christianity is delivered in detail to those 
who were waiting for instruction, the great announcement 
is conveyed by the outline of the ministry of Christ. St. 
Peter before Cornelius, and St. Paul in the 
Synagogue at Antioch, sketch shortly the 
significant traits of the Saviour’s life within 
the very limits which were marked from the first, “the 
Baptism of John,” and the Ascension. There is, however, 
a difference between the two addresses, which is of con- 
siderable moment towards the appreciation of the form in 


Acts iv, 20. 


Aets xx. 20, 


Acts iv. 83. 


Acts xi. 20. 
Acts viii. 12. 


Acts reviii. 31. 


Acts x. 381—43; 
xiii, 23—31. 


1Tn this passage “Peter and John” in which passage St. Paul specially no- 
are represented as speaking, and it is tices the office of the Apostles to wits 
impossible not to recall 1 John i.1—8. ποὲβ to the people,” 

2 Acts ii. 82; iii. 15; iv. 83; xiii. 31, 


184 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


which the Apostolic teaching was conveyed “publicly, and 
Jrom house to house.” The address of St. 
Paul was public, and, so to speak, ecclesiasti- 
eal; that of St. Peter was private and catechetical. The 
one appears to lead to further inquiry, the other is crowned 
directly by baptism. The words of St. Peter convey, in 
fact, a short gospel, and in this, not only the substance but 
also the evidence of the later creed. He marks the date 
of Christ’s appearance (after the Baptism which John 
preached ), the place from which He came, and the inau- 
guration of His work (how God anointed Jesus of 
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power), the point 
from which His ministry commenced, and the extent to 
which it spread (beginning from Galilee... . throughout 
all Judea), the signs by which His presence was attended, 
and the different localities in which they were shown (in 
the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem), His crucifixion, 
His resurrection on the third day, His manifestation to His 
chosen witnesses, His great charge, His coming to judg- 
ment. But while the personal instruction of individuals 
appears to have embraced the whole ministry of Christ, 
the public testimony of the Apostles was centred in the 
facts of the Passion and Resurrection. These 
form the prominent subjects of the message 
which they delivered to the general gather- 
ing of the Jews and to the council, in the 
synagogues and before the judgment-seat; and the same 
cardinal events which are described with the greatest 
fulness in the written Gospels are noticed with the most 
minute details in the speeches of the Acts. 


Acts xx. 20. 


Acts tt. 22 ff. ; iii, 
13 ff-; iv. 8 ff.; v. 
30; xvit. 2,3; ravi. 
23, 


1 The betrayal (Acts ii. 28); the con- 
demnation by the Sanhedrin (xiii. 27); 
the failure of the charge (xiii. 28); the 
conduet of Pilate (iii. 13), and of Herod 
(iv. 27); the choice of Barabbas (iv. 14); 
the urgency of the people and rulers at 
Jerusalem (xiii. 27, 28); the crucifixion 
(iv. 10; vy. 80; xi. 39) by Gentile hands 


(ii. 23); the burial (xiii. 29); the resur- 
rection on the third day (x. 40); the 
manifestation to chosen witnesses (x. 
41) “for many days” (xiii. 31), “‘ who 
did eat and drink with Him after He 
rose?’ (x. 41); the charge to the Apos- 
tles (x. 42); the ascension to the “ right 
hand of God” (ii. 38; iii. 21). 


TIE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 185 


The letters of the Apostles are the sequel to their 
preaching, called out in most cases by special 
circumstances, and dealing rather with the 
superstructure than with the basis of Christi- 
anity. The common groundwork of facts is assumed as 
lying at the bottom of all reasoning, but as a natural con- 
sequence it is not noticed, except by implication or allusion. 
Christ was set before the eyes of the Galatians 
as crucified, with the clearness of a vivid 
picture (zpoeypady κατ᾽ ὀφϑαλμούς). The “ Gos- 
pel” which St. Paul proclaimed to the Corinthians was 
the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. In 
speaking to the Thessalonians it is evident that he had 
dwelt upon the great issue of the Resurrection, the second 
coming of the Lord. And everything tends to show that 
“the traditions”! which formed an important part of the 
Apostolic teaching included the details of the Lord’s minis- 
try, which were committed to the Evangelist as the rule of 
his work. But the Epistles themselves were not designed 
for primary instruction, but for the further instruction of 
those who were familiar with the great outlines of the 
“revelation of godliness” which were embod- 
ied in the baptismal confession. This confes- 
sion, however, was the standard of Christian thought; and 
in spite of the character which was necessitated by their des- 
tination, the Epistles contain in scattered notices a fairly 
complete sketch of the life of Christ, such ~ ‘might be 


(6) The contents 
of the Apostolic let- 
ters. 


Gal. tii. 1, 


1 Cor. xv.1—4. 


1 Tim, tit. 16. 


1 This follows from the usage of the 
correlative words παραδιδόναι παράδο- 
σις, παραλαμβάνειν. Luke i. 2, καϑὼς 
παρέδοσαν ἡμῖν οἱ ἀπ᾿ ἀρχῆς αὐτόπται 
καὶ ὑπηρέται. .. . (the events of the 
ministry of Christ.). 1 Cor. xi. 28. 
᾿Εγὼ yap παρέλαβον ἀπὸ (not παρά) 
τοῦ Κυρίου ὃ καὶ παρέδωκα ὑμῖν... 
(the details of the Last Supper). 1 ον. 
xy. 8, παρέδωκα ... . ὃ καὶ παρέλα- 
βον (the details of the Passion and 
Resurrection). These unequivocal ex- 
amples of a historical tradition illus- 


trate the other passages in which the 
words are used in a more general sense: 
Rom. vi. 17, εἰς ὃν παρεδόϑητε τύπον 
διδαχῆδ. 1 Cor. xi. 2; Jud. 8, τῇ 
ἅπαξ παραδοδϑείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει; 
2 Thess. ii. 15; (iii. 6); Gal. i. 9; 1 Thess. 
ii. 18. Compare also παρακαταδϑήκη, 
παραδϑήκη, 1 Tim. vi. 20; 2 Tim. i. 12, 14, 
with Clem. Ecl. Proph. § 27, 7 yap τῶν 
πρεσβυτέρων παρακαταδήκη διὰ τῆς 
γραφῆς λαλοῦσα ὑπουργῷ χρῆται τῷ 
γράφοντι πρὸς τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἐν- 
τευξομένων. 


ΤΟΣ 


186 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


gathered from the letters of a missionary of the present 
day thoroughly familiar with the substance of the Gospels. 
The Epistles of St. James and St. Jude are in this re- 
spect distinguished from the other Apostolic 
Sere ms"? writings, for, with the exception of the allu- 
sions to the “presence” of the “ Lord Jesus 
Christ,” they contain no allusions to the details of His 
work.’ But even thus they bear indirect testimony to the 
existence of a traditional Gospel. The language of St. 
James offers the most striking coincidences with the lan- 
guage of our Lord’s discourses ;? and St. Jude speaks of 
“the most holy faith,” the basis of the Christian life, not as 
a simple principle, but as a sum of facts. 
The first Epistle of St. Peter bears in every chapter the 
vivid image of Christ’s sufferings (i. 215 ii. 21 
eee ΠΕΡ ΕΕ its 1. 18; iv. 1. 135 -v.1). “ΤΟ seems as if the 
Apostle delighted to turn back with penitent 
and faithful gaze to the scene of his own fall and his Mas- 
ter’s love, as he pictures Him silent and uncomplaining 
before His accusers, and bears witness to others of what he 
had himself seen (v. 1). But St. Peter does not confine 
his allusions to the humiliation of Christ, to His rejection 
(1. 4, 7, 8), His crucifixion (ii. 24), His death (i. 2, 19): he 
speaks of His eternal election (i. 20), and records with con- 
fident hope His resurrection (i. 8, 21; iii. 21) and exaltation 
to the right hand of God (iii. 22; cf. i. 21). The scenes of 
suffering are connected with corresponding scenes of glory 
(i. 11, ai μετὰ ταῦτα δόξαι); and while the Apostles allude 
with apparent distinctness to the last charge of Christ (v. 
2, 8) and the descent of the Holy Spirit (i. 12), he looks 
forward to the glorious coming of the great Judge as the 
consummation of His work (1. 5, 7, 13; iv. 5). 
The second Epistle is chiefly remarkable for the detailed 


1 James y. 8; Jude 24. Credner Εἴη]. § 821, p. 608. In James 
2 Jamesi. 5, 6 || Matt. vii. 7; xxi. 22; v.12 || Matt. v. 86, 37, there is a coin- 
James i. 22 || Matt. vii. 21; James ii. 15. cidence with the Clementine reading 
|| Matt. v. 7; James iii. 1 || Matt. xxiii. (Hom. iii. 55; xix. 2). 
8; James iii. 12 || Matt. vii. 16. Cf. 3 Jude 20. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 187 


reference to the Transfiguration (i. 16 ff), which, in the 
midst of marked peculiarities of language, 
offers a most interesting parallel to the evan- 
gelic narrative. The words of the heavenly voice are to 
a great extent coincident with those recorded by St. 
Matthew, with the natural omission of the last clause ;* 
but the comparative elaborateness of the description seems 
to offer an instructive contrast to the simplicity of the 
earlier Gospel.? 

St. Paul says, in writing to the Corinthians, that his 
single determination was to proclaim to them 
Christ crucified; and the “cross of Christ” 
is the centre and sign of his Epistles. The 
phrase, “the cross” (1 Cor. i. 18: Gal. v.11), “the cross of 
our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. vi. 14), “the cross of Christ” 
(1 Cor. i. 17; Gal. vi. 12; Phil. iii. 18), is peculiar to his 
writings, for the single additional passage in the Epistle to 
the Hebrews (Heb. xii. 2, a cross of shame) is purely his- 
toric, and it cannot but appear characteristic of the view 
which he took of the Christian faith. In various places 
he marks the supreme judge (1 Tim. vi. 13, under Pontius 
Pilate*), the time (1 Cor. v. 7, Christ our Passover ts 
slain), the instruments (1 Thess. ii. 15, the Jews who killed 
the Lord Jesus) of the Lord’s death. But the death of 
Christ was, as it were, only the way to the resurrection ; 
and in the writings of St. Paul the two events are put for- 
ward as forming the very substance of “the Gospel” 
(1 Cor. xv. 1 ff.),? and as such are constantly combined 


2nd Epistle. 


iii, St. PAUL. 


1 Cor. τὶ. 2. 


1The reading εἰς ὃν εὐδόκησα for 
ἐν @ εὐδ. (which some good MSS. read) 
is found also in Hom. Clem. iii. 53. 

The recurrence of the word ἔξοδος 
in a metaphorical sense is remarkable 
in 2 Pet. i. 15 || Luke ix. 31. 

2e. g. φωνῆς evexdetons ὑπὺ τῆς 
μεγαλοπρεποῦς δόξης ---- ev τῷ ὄρει τῷ 

/ 
ἁγίῳ. 

5 Τὴ connection with this it may be 
observed that the metaphorical sense of 


σταυρόω (Gal. y. 24; vi. 14) is peculiar 
to St. Paul. 

4 The mention of Pontius Pilate is 
remarkable, according to the common 
translation, as the reference in that 
case must be rather to the event of 
John xviii. 36 ff than of Matt. xxvii. 
11. It is better, however, to take ἐπί, 
as in the Creed, simply as marking the 
date. ᾿ 


5It is very important to notice 


188 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


(Rom. iv. 24, 25; xiv.9). Yet even thus the completeness 
of the narrative is preserved. “Christ died ..... and 
was buried..... and rose again on the third day” (1 Cor. 
xv.4 ff). Afterwards the reality of the resurrection is 
attested by the subsequent appearances to Cephas, to the 
twelve, to above five hundred brethren, to James, to all 
the Apostles, to St. Paul himself (1 Cor. xv. 5—8). In 
several places the Apostle assumes the fact of the Ascen- 
sion (Rom. viii. 24; Eph. i. 20; Col. iii. 1), and in one 
phrase he clearly alludes to it (1 Tim. iii. 16, ἀνελήφϑη. 
Cf. Mark xvi. 19; Acts i. 2). 

In respect to the prominence thus given to the last 
scenes of our Lord’s life, the Epistles of St. Paul are in 
harmony with the narrative of the Gospels. It was felt 
that the whole life of Christ was outwardly summed up in 
its crowning issue, in the depth of shame and in the fulness 
of triumph; but the preparation is not unnoticed by St. 
Paul. At the first, “Christ made Himself of no reputa- 
tion, and took upon Him the form of a servant” (Phil. 
11.5 ff.), “being rich, for our sakes He became poor” (2 Cor. 
vill. 9), “born of a woman” (Gal. iv. 4), sprung from the 
Jews “according to the flesh” (Rom. ix. 5), “the seed of 
Abraham” (Gal. iii. 16), “of the seed of David” (Rom. 
1. 8; 2 Tim. 11. 8), brought in subjection to the law (Gal. 
iv. 4, ὑπὸ νόμον), circumcised (Col. ii. 11), associated with 
others as His brethren (Gal.i.19). In His life “He pleased 
not Himself” (Rom. xv. 3), but left an image of “meek- 
ness and gentleness” (2 Cor. x. 1) in the midst of afflictions 
(Col. i. 24; 2 Cor. i.5; 1 Thess. i. 6) ; and the pattern of 
the life of Christ is that to which the Christian must aspire, 
and to which he will at last attain (Eph. iv. 13). One 
scene only, the institution of the Last Supper, is described 


that St. Paul speaks of this Gospel ἀπὸ τοῦ K.not παρὰ τοῦ K.) the 
as “handed down” (xv. 1, 3). He account of the institution of the Eu- 
first received (παρέλαβε) and in turn charist (1 Cor. xi. 28). Cf. Neander, 
transmitted (παρέδωκε) the Gospel. In Gesch. d. Pflanz. u. 8. w. i. 130 5. 
the same way he speaks of ‘“‘ receiving Supr. p. 185, ἢ. 1. 

(mediately) from the Lord” (taped. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. ~* 189 


in detail, and in that the language is almost coincident 
with that of the narrative in the Gospels (1 Cor. x. 16; 
xi, 2326) 

The Epistle to the Hebrews touches on each of the great 
features in the Saviour’s life, as His incarna- 
tion (ii. 9 ff), His descent from Judah (vii. ,,%¢ Brite tome 
14), His temptation (ii. 18; iv. 15), His 
consecration to His ministry (v. 5), His humiliation (ii. 9 
ff.) and sufferings (v.8), His agony (vy. 7, with peculiar de- 
tails), and crucifixion (vi. 6) outside the walls (xiii. 12), and 
His exaltation to the right hand of God (viii. 1; ix. 24 ff)? 

The references which St. John makes in his epistles to 

the circumstances of the life of Christ are 
exactly accordant with the character of his 
Gospel. He dwells on the preéxistence of the Son of God 
(iv. 9), and, at the same time, affirms with the most 
complete Ἐς Κατ His real incarnation (iv. 2), and 
bodily presence (i. 1, ai χεῖρες Hp. ἐψηλάφησαν), and death 
(i. 7;:ii. 2). In the same way, without noticing the 
resurrection expressly, he speaks of the mediatorial work 
of Christ in the presence of the Father (ii. 1), and His 
future “coming in the flesh” (2 Ep. 7, ἐρχόμενον). The 
beginning and close of the Lord’s ministry, His baptism 
and death, are shown to be mysteriously united, inwardly 
in the completion of a divine testimony, and outwardly in 
one of the last incidents of the Passion (v. 6). In St. 
John the spiritual significance is extended over the literal, 
but a foundation of historic details lies at the foundation 
of the higher lesson. 

The connection of the Evangelic narra- fhe swstance of 
tive with the Apostolic Epistles is not, how- ἶνας 70 
ever, confined to mere allusions. The spirit 2st 
and tone of the letters presuppose some such record as 


iv. St. Joun. 


1If the text of Luke xxii. 19, 20, be that an interpolation has been made 
correct, the coincidence is verbal, but from 1 Cor. xi. 28 ff. 
the confusion which exists in these 2 Cf. Stanley, Ep. to Corinthians, pp. 
verses renders it more than probable 586 ff. 2 Ed. 


190 -THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


that which is contained in the histories. The substance 
of the Gospels is an adequate explanation of the form of 
the first Christian teaching, and it is impossible to con- 
ceive of any other. If it be true that scarcely any clear 
references to the recorded discourses of the Lord are con- 
tained in the Epistles, for the parallels to 1 Cor. vii. 10 
(Matt. v. 32) and 1 Cor. ix. 14 (Luke x. 4, 7, cf. 1 Tim. vy. 
18) are at best uncertain, it is no less true that the life and 
words of Christ are everywhere assumed as the basis of all 
doctrine. He is Himself wisdom (1 Cor. 1. 30), the centre 
of truth (Eph. iv. 21), “the true” (1 John v. 20); His 
commandments are absolute (1 Cor. xiv. 27); His words 
are the decisive rule of “sound” doctrine (1 Tim. vi. 3); 
His example the one perfect model (1 Pet. ii, 21; Phil. 11. 
5; 1 John ii. 6). It is everywhere assumed that the 
Christian is familiar with the portraiture of his Master, 
and each of the traits which are preserved in these passing 
notices is seen in its full expression in the Gospels. The 
New Testament, as a whole, is a key to the sub-apostolic 
history; the Gospels, not perhaps in their written but in 
their oral form, are the key to the Epistles." 

Thus far, then, it has been shown that the characteristic 
work of the Apostles was preaching, and not 
writing; that they were inclined to this form 
of teaching by character and training, no less than by their 
special commission; that the first “Gospel” was conse- 
quently an oral message, and not a written record; that 
the books of the Old Testament were the 
Apostolic Scriptures (cf. 2 Tim. iii, 15). It has been 
further shown that this oral Gospel of the Apostles was 


Summary, 


suflicient 


1 It is remarkable that there is (as far 
as I know) no direct allusion to the 
miracles of our Lord in the Epistles; 
but it is possible (Stanley, 1. c.) that the 
word δαιμόνια in 1 Cor. x. 20, 21, which 
occurs elsewhere in St. Paul only in 
1 Tim. iy. 1, may be chosen with a dis- 
tinct reference to the antagonism 80 


often brought out in the Lord’s life in 
His “ casting out devils.” It isa similar 
fact, that in the writings of the apostolic¢ 
fathers there are(I believe) no allusions 
to the miracles of the Apostles. The 
omission in both cases arises from the 
nature of the writings. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 191 


historic; that the Apostles were expressly declared to be 
witnesses of the whole ministry of Christ; that their 
preaching rested on the details of His life; that their 
letters presuppose an acquaintance with the facts of the 
Gospel, and preserve such an outline of its contents as is 
filled up in our Gospels. It remains still to inquire 
whether there is any direct evidence for connecting our 
present Gospels with the oral cycle of evangelic facts 
which is thus seen to have existed; and whether the 
theory of a common oral origin is consistent with the 
peculiarities of form which they exhibit. 

On the first point early testimony is explicit and uniform. 
Each of the first three Gospels is distinctly 
connected by adequate evidence with the 
previous preaching of Apostles, as being 
intended to supply a permanent record of 
that which was before only traditional. The 
written Gospels are acknowledged in history to be the last 
stage of the Apostolic preaching, the preparation for the 
passage into a new age. 

The earliest account of the origin of a “Gospel” is that 
which Papias has given on the authority of 
the elder John.!. Papias was himself a “ di- 
rect hearer” of this John, and John was “a 
disciple of the Lord,” if the text of Papias be correct, and, 
at any rate, contemporary with the later period of the 
Apostolic age. ‘ This also, then, was the statement of the 
elder. Mark having become Peter’s interpreter, wrote 
accurately all that he (Peter) mentioned (ἐμνημόνευσε) ;? 


II, The written 
Gospels. 

1, Distinctly con- 
nected with the 
Apostolic preach- 
ing. 


(a) St. MARK ; on 
the evidence of 
Papias ; and 


1 Euseb. H. £. iii. 39. Routh, Rell. 
Sacr. i. pp. 18 ff. 

2 This word is ambiguous, like ἀπε- 
μνημόνευσε below, and may mean * re- 
membered,” or ‘* mentioned.” Itis used 
in both senses in the chapter of Euse- 
bius in which the quotation occurs. 
The first sense is that in which it is 
commonly taken here, but after further 
consideration I am inclined now to 


prefer the second rendering as more 
consistent with the other forms in 
which the tradition is preserved. A 
passage of Eusebius (Dem. Ev. iii. 5), 
however, seems to favor the other ren- 
dering in the second case. Πέτρος οὐδὲ 
καδῆκεν ἐπὶ τὴν εὐαγγελίου γραφὴν 
δι᾽ εὐλαβείας ὑπεροχήν" τούτου Μάρκος 
γνώριμος καὶ φοιτητὴς γεγονὼς ἀπο- 
μνημονεῦσαι λέγεται τὰς τοῦ Πέτρου 


192 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


though he did not [record] in order that which was either 
said or done by Christ (οὐ μέντοι τάξει τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἢ 
λεχϑέντα ἢ πραχϑέντα). For he neither heard the Lord nor 
followed (παρηκολούϑησεν) Him; but subsequently, as I said 
[attached himself to] Peter, who used to frame his teach- 
ing to meet the wants [of his hearers], but not as making a 
connected narrative of the Lord’s discourses (ὥσπερ σύνταξιν 
τῶν Κυριακῶν ποιούμενος λόγων. All. λογίων). So Mark com- 
mitted no error, as he wrote down some particulars (ἔνια 
γράψας) as he narrated them (ἀπεμνημόνευσεν) ; for he took 
heed to one thing, to omit nothing of things he heard, and 
to make no false statement in [his account of] them.” 

This most important testimony notices the three points 
on which stress has been already laid, the historic charac- 
ter of the oral Gospel, the special purpose with which it 
was framed, the fragmentariness of its contents; and it was 
on such an oral basis that our present Gospel of St. Mark 
is said to have been founded, according to the evidence of 
one who must have known the Apostles. 

Later writers, partly as it seems from an independent 
tradition, and partly from this statement of 
Papias, repeat the same general statement of 
the relation of St. Mark to St. Peter with various differ- 
ences of detail. Irenzus defines more exactly the time of 
the publication of the Gospel, though the reading is 
uncertain. “After the decease (ἔξοδον, cf. 2 Pet. 1. 15) of 
these (Peter and Paul), Mark, the disciple and interpreter 
of Peter, himself also handed down to us in writing 
the things which were preached by Peter.”' Clement of 
Alexandria records, as “a tradition of the elders of former 


later writers. 


περὶ τῶν πράξεων τοῦ Ἰησοῦ διαλές H. E. vy. 8. The reading, μετὰ τὴν 
ἔεις .... πάντα γὰρ τὰ παρὰ Μάρκῳ τούτου (sc. τοῦ κατὰ Ματϑαῖον εὐαγ- 
τοῦ Πέτρου διαλέξεων εἶναι λέγεται γελίου) ἔκδοσιν (Cramer, Cat. in Mare. 
ἀπομνημονεύματα. Comp. also Clem. p. 264) is worthy of notice, as the date 


Alex. ap. Euseb. H. ΕΒ. vi. 14..... τὸν js not consistent with the other ac- 
Μάρκον μεμνημένον τῶν λεχϑέντων counts. Elsewhere Irenzus calls Mark 
ἀναγράψαι τὰ εἰρημένα. ἌΡ τ interpres et sectator (2. ει ἀκόλουδος) 


lIren. adv. Her. iii. 1. Cf. Euseb. Petri (iii. 10, 6). 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 193 
time” (παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνέκαϑεν πρεσβυτέρων), an account, 
which, though very similar to that of Papias, appears to be 
distinct from it. “[It is said] that when Peter had 
publicly preached (κηρύξαντος) the word in Rome, and 
declared the Gospel by inspiration (πνεύματι ἐξειπόντος τὸν 
λόγον), those who were present, being many, urged Mark, 
as one who had followed him from a distant time, and 
remembered what he said, to record (ἀναγράψαι) what he 
stated (τὰ εἰρημένα) ; and that he, having made his Gospel, 
gave it to those who requested him; and that Peter, when 
he was aware of this, took pains neither to hinder him nor 
to encourage him in the work (προτρεπτικῶς μήτε κωλῦσαι 
μήτε tporpéevac-Ja).”* Origen says still more expressly that 
“ Mark made his Gospel as Peter guided him (ὑφηγήσατο). 
Tertullian, in like manner, remarks that “the Gospel of 
Mark is maintained to be Peter’s, whose interpreter he 
was,.... for it is possible that that which scholars 
publish should be regarded as their master’s work.” 3 

The tradition was repeated in later times, but generally 
in the later form which Eusebius gave to it, according to 
which St. Peter expressly “sanctioned the writing [of 
Mark] for the use of the Church,” in accordance with a 
divine revelation; a statement which is at direct variance 
with the authority which Eusebius quotes, and internally 
improbable.‘ 


1Clem. Alex. Fragm. Hypotyp. p. 
1016 P. Euseb. H. 1. vi. 14. So also 
Adumbr. in Pet. Ep. 1. p. 1007; Marcus 
Petri sectator palam predicente Petro 
evangelium Romz coram quibusdam 
Cesareanis equitibus et multa Christi 
testimonia proferente, penitus ut pos- 
sent que dicebantur memorize com- 
mendari, scripsit ex his que Petro dicta 
sunt eyangelium quod secundum Mar- 
cum vocitatur. 

The false references which Eusebius 
(4. £.ii. 15) and Jerome (de virr. illustr. 
8) make to this passage, as though St. 
Peter did confirm the Gospel by special 


revelation, are evidently later embellish- 
ments of the tradition. 

2 Comm.in Matt.i. Euseb. H.E. vi. 25. 

8 Contr. Mare. iv. 5. 

To these writers Justin M. may be 
added, who speaks of “the memoirs 
(ἀπομνημονεύματα) of Peter” with an 
obvious reference to St. Mark; Dial. ec. 
106. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 180 f. 

4The later writers are quoted by 
Credner, Zinl. p. 113 ff. 

In another place Eusebius (ZH. £. ii. 
16) represents St. Mark as “ preaching 
himself in Egypt the Gospel which he 
composed.” 


~ 


( 


194 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


The history of the present Gospel of St. Matthew is 
beset with peculiar difficulties, and the earli- 
est writers are silent as to the circumstances 
which attended its composition. While using the Greek 
text as unquestionably authentic, they recognize unani- 
mously the existence of a Hebrew archetype, of which 
they seem to regard the canonical book as an authoritative 
translation or representative, but still without offering any 
explanation of the manner in which this substitution was 
made. Papias, probably on the testimony of the elder 
John, though this is not clear, states simply that “ Matthew 
composed the oracles in the Hebrew language; but each 
interpreted them as he could.”! This evidence then 
carries us back to a time when no Greek Gospel bearing 
the name of St. Matthew was generally current, though a 
Hebrew Gospel, —for λόγια, “ oracles,” can mean no less, — 
of which he was the author, was known and used. In the 
next generation the Greek Gospel was used most commonly 
by Justin, though he is silent as to the authorship ;? and in 
the time of Clement of Alexandria,®? Tertullian* and Ire- 
nus,’ the present Gospel was recognized by the Church as 
the authentic work of St. Matthew. But the reception of 
the Greek text did not interfere with the earlier belief. 
The existence of a Hebrew original is confirmed by the 
statements of Irenzus® and Origen,’ on the authority of 
“tradition” (ὡς ἐν παραδόσει μαϑών), and by the general 
consent of later opinion, as well as by the story of Pante- 
nus, who is said to have found in “India” “the Hebrew 


(Ὁ) St. MATTOEW. 


1Papias ap. Eusebius, H. Z. iii. 39. 4 Tert. ὁ. Marc. iv. 2... fidem ex 


Ματϑαῖος μὲν οὖν ‘EBpatd: δια- 
λέκτῳ τὰ λόγια συνεγράψατο, ἢ ρ- 
μήνευσε δ᾽ αὐτὰ ὡς ἠδύνατο ἕκασ- 
vos. The form of the sentence is 
remarkable, and the aorist marks a 
change before Papias’ (or John’s) time. 
Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, 719. 

2 Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 154 ff. 

8. Clem. Alex. Hypotyp. 1. ¢. Cf. 
Euseb. H. E. vi. 14. 


apostolis Joannes et Matthaus insinu- 
ant. 

5 Iren. adv. Her. iii. 11,8... 6 Λόγος 
... ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τετράμορφον τὸ εὐ- 
αγγέλιον, ἑνὶ δὲ πνεύματι συνεχόμε- 
νον. 

6 Iren. adv. Her. iii. 1. 
HH, E. vy. 8. 

7 Orig. Comm. in Matt. i. 
H. Ε. vi. 25. 


Cf. Euseb. 


Cf. Euseb, 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 195 


writing of Matthew,” which was left there by the Apostle 
Bartholomew. But none of these writers allude to the 
origin of the Gospel. This is first described by Eusebius, 
in a passage which bears strong internal marks of proba- 
bility, though it is impossible to point out the authorities 
on which it rests. “Matthew,” he says, “having formerly 
preached to Hebrews, when he was about to go to others 
also, having committed to writing in his native tongue the 
Gospel according to him, filled up by his writing what was 
wanting in his presence (τὸ λεῖπον τῇ αὐτοῦ παρουσίᾳ, @. 6.» the 
loss they felt as he was no longer with them) to those from 
whom he set out.”2 This may be a mere conjecture by 
which Eusebius explains the earlier tradition, but in the 
absence of all opposing evidence it must be allowed to have 
some weight. 

The early accounts of the origin of the Gospel of St. 
Luke were strictly parallel to those of the 
origin of St. Mark, but less detailed. “ Luke, 
the follower of Paul,” says Ireneus, “set down in a book 
the Gospel which he (Paul) used to preach (τὸ ὑπ᾽ ἐκείνου 
κηρυσσόμενον εὐαγγ.)." ‘Tertullian speaks of St. Paul as 
“the dluminator of Luke,” and says that “the summary 
(digestum) of Luke was generally assigned to Paul.”* 
The allusions which St. Paul makes to “his Gospel” 
(Rom. ii. 16; xvi. 25; 2 Tim. ii. 8. Cf. 2 Cor. viii. 18) and 
to St. Luke, soon gave occasion to suppose that he himself 
used the Gospel of St. Luke. Even Origen speaks of “the 
Gospel of Luke as that praised by Paul;”’ and the tra- 
dition assumed a more definite shape in the writings of 
Jerome® and the Pseudo-Athanasius. It is remarkable, 
however, that Eusebius refers to the conjecture (¢acv) 


(c) St. LUKE. 


1 Euseb, H. E.v.10. Cf. Hieron. de 14, 1).... qui semper cum Paulo 
virr. illustr. 36. predicavit .... et cum eo evangeli- 
2 Euseb. H. £. iii. 24. zavit et creditus est nobis referre evan- 


3 Tren. adv. Her. iii. 1.1. Cf. Euseb. gelium. (1. c.). 
H. E. y. 8. Elsewhere Irenzus calls 4 Tert. adv. Mare. iv. 2; iv. 5. 
Luke “inseparabilis a Paulo et codper- 5 Orig. ap. Euseb. H. £. vi. 25. 
arius ejus in evangelio” (adv. Her. iii. 6 Hieron. de virr. illustr. 7. 


196 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


without trace of approval, though the corresponding tra- 
dition, which confers the direct authority of St. Peter on 
the Gospel of St. Mark, rests on his authority. 
But, apart from tradition, the preface with which St. 
Luke opens his Gospel throws a striking 
Ἐπ τον Preface. light upon its composition. The words have 
cecal been made the subject of the most varied 
controversy, though the true sense seems to lie upon their 
surface. Both in the description which he gives of other 
“ Gospels,” and in the peculiar character which he claims 
for his own, St. Luke appears to confirm the views already 
given of the prevalence and nature of the unwritten Gos- 
pel of the first age. The common basis of the Evangelic 
narratives is said to be the oral “tradition of those who 
from the beginning (cf. Acts i. 21, 22) were eye-witnesses 
and ministers of the word.” The two elements in the 
Apostolic character which have been already pointed out, 
personal knowledge (αὐτόπται) and practical experience 
(ὑπηρέται), are recognized by St. Luke as present in those 
who originally “handed down” (παρέδοσαν) the history 
which many attempted to draw up and arrange afresh 
(ἀνατάξασϑαι) in a connected shape (dvar. διήγησιν. . - 
καϑὼς π.). The work of these first unknown Evangelists 
was new only in form, and not in substance. The tradition 
which they incorporated in a narrative was not peculiar to 
themselves, but common to all (xa. παρ. ἡμῖν) ;* for the 
common belief was independent of these written records. 
St. Luke speaks of the “attempts” as of something which 
had no influence at the present The “ facts” were “fully 
believed” {πεπληροφορημένων, not πληροφορηϑέντων, Rom. iv. 
21) apart from the evidence of such documents. Theophi- 


1 Euseb. H. £. iii. 4. “have attempted.” Possibly some 
feeling of this difference influenced 
Origen’s judgment, when he saw in 
the word ‘‘attempt” itself a reproof 
of unauthorized temerity (Hom. in 
3 ᾿Επεχείρησαν, “ attempted,’ not Lue. 1.). 


2 Bp. Marsh justly insists on the im- 
portance of the phrase: The origin of 
the first three Gospels, p. 364. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 197 


lus was already “instructed” in “the words”? of the exact 
truth of which St. Luke wished to assure him; and his 
instruction was derived not from books, but from that oral 
teaching (κατηχήνϑης)» Which 15 described by the same term 
from the first foundation of the Church (Acts xvill. 25; 
Gal. vi. 6). So far, then, the statements of St. Luke cor- 
roborate in the fullest manner the view which has been 
taken of the origin of written Gospels. The narrative 
was the embodiment of the oral accounts; the “facts” 
(πράγματα) were coérdinate with “the word ;” the work of 
the Evangelist was arrangement rather than fresh compo- 
sition; the subjects with which he dealt were at once 
matters of firm conviction and ordinary instruction. The 
grounds on which St. Luke rests his own narrative involve 
the same principles. It is evident at first that he repre- 
sents his Gospel as a faithful embodiment of the “Evan- 
gelic tradition.” He finds no fault with the basis on which 
the earlier writers rested. His own determination is placed 
on an equal footing with theirs (ἔδοξε κἀμοί) ; but he claims 
for himself a knowledge of the Apostolic preaching con- 
tinuous from the first, complete, exact, and for his writing 
a due order (Luke 1. ὃ, παρηκολονθηκότι ἄνωϑεν πᾶσιν ἀκριβῶς 
καϑεξῆς σοι γράψαι). Each word in the sentence contrib- 
utes an important element to the completeness of the 
whole idea. St. Luke appears to speak of a gradual un- 
folding of the whole Gospel in the course of the Apostolic 
work which he had watched from the first step throughout 
in every detail. The same term (παρακολουϑ εἶν) describes 
the personal attendance on a teacher (Papias, 1. c. ap. Euseb. 
H. E. iii. 89), and the careful following of a doctrine 
(1 Tim. iv. 6; 2 Tim. iii. 10). The long companionship 
seems to be the criterion of the complete knowledge. And 
this view of the notion implied in “following” illustrates 
the meaning of the next words. St. Luke’s “continuous 


Ἔ “The words” (οἱ Adyot) being the constituent elements of ‘‘the word” (6 
Aoyos). Cf. 1 Tim. iv. 6. 


i fi 


198 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


familiarity ” with the subject gave him a knowledge of the 
whole cycle of the “tradition,” and not only of particular 
periods or of particular parts of it. His knowledge started 
from the first, and extended to every point; and the 
peculiar advantages of the Evangelist are enforced by the 
notice of his special care (ἀκριβῶς) and plan. But the 
notion of order (καϑεξῆς) does not necessarily involve that 
of time, but rather that of moral or logical sequence 
(cf. Acts xi. 4). The two may coincide, and in the exhi- 
bition of a perfect life they will in the main, but chronology 
is not paramount in the Gospels, and the language of St- 
Luke does not imply that he designed to follow it. Like 
the teaching on which it was first based, the record is 
subservient to special requirements. It is complete in 
regard to its object, but not absolutely; a message of good 
tidings, and not a biography; united in its several parts by 
a spiritual law, and not by a table of dates. 

Hitherto all the evidence which can be gathered from 

Sic ee the circumstances of the early Church, and 
character of the the traditions of the origin of the Gospels, 
Late has tended to establish the existence of an 
original oral Gospel, definite in general outline and even 
in language, which was committed to writing in the lapse 
of time in various special shapes, according to the typical 
forms which it assumed in the preaching of different 
Apostles. It is probable that this oral Gospel existed 
from the first in Aramaic and Greek, as would naturally 
be the case in a country where two languages were gener- 
ally current. The teaching of St. Matthew “among his 
own countrymen” is expressly said to have been in 
“ Hebrew,” and it is not less certain that Greek must have 
been the common medium of intercourse with the Hel- 
lenists. The step from these oral narratives to written 
records in Hebrew and Greek is simple and natural; but 
nothing has been said yet of the internal evidence to be 
derived from the Gospels themselves; and still it is on this 
that the decision of the question of their origin mainly 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 199 


depends. General indications and _ beliefs, probabilities 
and seeming coincidences, must be abandoned if they are 
clearly opposed to the internal character of the books — to 
the peculiarities of their mutual relations, to the extent 
and limit of their similarity and difference, to the general 
unity by which they are held together, and to the special 
characteristics by which they are distin- 

3 (a) The nature of 
guished. It may be asked whether there is the proviem which 
any intimate external connection between aoe 
the Gospels? Whether the resemblances which exist 
point to the existence of a common source or to mutual 
dependence? Whether, in the latter case, it is possible 
to determine the order of precedence, or in the former 
the nature — oral or written—of the original records? 
Various answers have been given to these questions, but 
the first, at least, may be regarded as definitely settled. 
No one at present would maintain, with some of the older 
scholars of the Reformation, that the coincidences between 
the Gospels are due simply to the direct and independent 
action of the same Spirit upon the several writers. The 
explanation of the phenomena which they present is sought 
by universal consent in the presence of a common element, 
though opinions are still divided as to its nature. The 
original source of the resemblance may lie in the influence 
of an original tradition, or of a popular narrative, or in the 
earliest written Gospel itself; but the existence of some 
such source is admitted on all sides. The merits of the 
different hypotheses must be decided by their fitness to 
satisfy the various conditions of the question; and before 
attempting to decide their claims, it will be necessary to 
gain a distinct notion of the nature and extent of the 
concordances of which an explanation is required.! 


1 For the study of the parallelisms is bad and altogether unprovided with 
of the Gospels abundant helps are pro- critical apparatus, so that it cannot be 
vided. Greswell’s Harmonia Evan- safely used alone. Stroud’s New Greek 
gelica (Ed. 4ta. Oxon., 1845) is perfeet Harmony (Lond., 1853) is second only 
in respect of typography, but the text to Greswell in the conyenience of its 


200 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


The concordances of the synoptic Gospels may be classed 
under three heads: — general agreement in 
the plan and arrangement of the materials; 
constant identity of narrative in form and 
substance; and verbal coincidences. With these concord- 
ances are combined differences in detail and expression, 
large interpolations of peculiar matter, distinct revisions, 
so to speak, of the same record, so that the points of 
meeting between the different writers are scarcely more 
numerous than the points of divergence, and the theory 
which explains the existence of the former must not leave 
the existence of the latter unnoticed or unexplained. 

The general plan of the first three Gospels exhibits a 
remarkable correspondence. The history of 
the Infancy contained in St. Matthew and 
St. Luke finds no parallel in St. Mark, but afterwards the 
main course of the three narratives is throughout coinci- 
dent. The preparation for the Ministry, John the Baptist, 
the Baptism, the Temptation, the return to Galilee, the 
preaching in Galilee, the journey to Jerusalem, the en- 
trance into Jerusalem and the preaching there, the Passion, 
the Resurrection — such is the common outline which they 
all present, and the same relative order of the subordinate 
incidents is always preserved by St. Mark and St. Luke, 
and also by St. Matthew, with the exception of some of 
the earlier sections. The most remarkable differences lie 
in the presence of ἃ long series of events connected with 
the Galilean ministry, which are peculiar to St. Matthew 
and St. Mark,! and a second series of events connected 


with the journey to Jerusalem, which is peculiar to St. 
Luke.” 


i. The concord- 
ances between them 
threefold, 


a. In general plan. 


typographical arrangement, and it has 
a fair apparatus criticus. Anger’s 
Synopsis Evangeliorum Matt. Mare. 
Tuc... . . (Lipsia, 1851) contains a 
most complete and elaborate summary 
of all the early evangelic fragments 
and quotations in addition to the can- 
onical text and critical apparatus, but 


the arrangement is not so distinetas that 
in Greswell and Stroud. For practical 
purposes, Anger, combined with Stroud 
or Greswell, will furnish all the student 
can require. 

1 Matt. xiv. 22—xvi. 12.=Mark yi. 45 
—viii. 26. 

2 Luke ix. 5l—xyiii. 14. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 201 


Nor is the obvious similarity of the synoptic Gospels 
confined to their broad outlines. The inci- 
dents with which their outlines are filled up 
are often identical and always similar. The absolute 
extent of this coincidence of incident admits of a simple 
representation by numbers; and though the relations 
which are given are only approximately true, they convey 
a clearer notion of the nature of the phenomenon than any 
general description. The proportion may be exhibited in 
several modes, and each method places the truth in a new 
light. 

If the total contents of the several Gospels be repre- 
sented by 100, the following table is obtained :* 


b. In incident. 


Peculiarities, Concordances, 
St. Mark, ; : Σ : 7 93 
St. Matthew, ¢ “ : - AD 58 
St. Luke, j : : : 59 41 
[St. John, : ὃ : δ ay'92 8] 


From this it appears that the several Gospels bear 
almost exactly an inverse relation to one another, St. Mark 
and St. John occupying the extreme positions, the propor- 
tion of original passages in one balancing the coincident 
passages in the other. If again the extent of all the 
coincidences be represented by 100, their proportionate 
distribution will be :? 


St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, : 5 5 53 
St. Matthew, St. Luke, 3 3 ‘ ee! 
St. Matthew, St. Mark, . - - ὃ - “0 
St. Mark, St. Luke, . : ὦ 3 : - 0 


Or, if we follow another principle of comparison, and 
take the whole number of distinct sections in the synoptic 
Evangelists as 150 approximately, the peculiarities and 
concordances of the Gospels may be thus exhibited: 


1 Stroud, Harmony of the Gospels, p. 2 Compare Norton’s Genuineness of 
117. the Gospels, i. 818 ff. 


202 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


Peculiarities. Concordances. 
St. Luke, . ὁ Sea ) s 
St. Matthew, . é 14 SO era) eee Oe 
St. Mark, . : ἥ 2 \ 
53 97 


The relations thus obtained harmonize on the whole 
with the former, but it appears that in regard to their 
mutual connections the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. 
Mark have a much greater similarity of subject, and those 
of St. Matthew and St. Luke a somewhat greater similarity 
in the mere extent of coincidence, than conversely. Other 
interesting combinations might be obtained from an ex- 
amination of the range of greatest coincidence and most 
distinctive peculiarities; but, looking only at the general 
result, it may be said that of the contents of the synoptic 
Gospels about two-fifths are common to the three, and that 
the parts peculiar to one or other of them are little more 
than one-third of the whole. In St. Mark there are not 
more than four and twenty verses to which parallels do 
not exist in St. Matthew or St. Luke, though St. Mark 
exhibits everywhere traits of vivid detail, which are 
peculiar to his narrative. 

It is not, however, enough to consider general coinci- 
dences of substance and subject. Such a 
view conveys a false and exaggerated idea 
of the likeness between the Gospels. In spite of their 
general resemblance they are severally distinct in style and 
effect. The identity of range is combined with difference 
of treatment, peculiarities of language with unity of scope. 
The verbal coincidences between the different Gospels, 
while in themselves sufficiently remarkable, are yet consid- 
erably less than might appear from the popular statement 
of the facts. The passages common to St. Matthew and 
some other of the Synoptic Gospels form a little more than 
four-sevenths of the whole, but the corresponding verbal 
coincidences are less than one-sixth. In the other Gospels 
the proportion of verbal coincidences is still less. Those in 


6. In language. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 203 


St. Luke form about one-tenth, and in St. Mark about one- 
sixth of the whole Gospels, while the general coincidences 
form respectively about two-fifths and thirteen-fourteenths.' 
Thus the approximate relation between the general and 
verbal coincidences of the Gospels may be represented 
tabularly : 
St. Matthew. St. Luke. 
2437 . 4:1 


St. Mark. 
39.3 7 


Nor is this all: in the distribution of the verbal co- 
incidences a very simple law is observable. 
They occur most commonly in the recital of 
the words of our Lord or of others, and are 
comparatively rare in the simple narrative. Thus, of the 
verbal coincidences in St. Matthew about seven-eighths, 
of those in St. Mark about four-fifths, and of those in St. 
Luke about nineteen-twentieths occur in the record of the 
words of others. 

If, again, these verbal coincidences are further analyzed, 
several interesting results are obtained. In the passages 
common to all these Evangelists about one-sixth consists 
of verbal coincidences, and of these one-fifth occurs in the 
narrative, and four-fifths in the recitative parts. In the 
same sections the additions common to St. Matthew and 
St. Mark contain five-sixths of their verbal coincidences in 
the recitative portions; and those common to St. Mark 
and St. Luke,? and St. Matthew and St. Luke, with two 
unimportant exceptions, present no verbal coincidence 
except in such portions.’ In the sections common to two 
Evangelists a similar law prevails. The verbal coinci- 
dences between St. Matthew and St. Luke are very 


The distribution 
of verbal  coinci- 
dences peculiar. 


1 For these proportions Iam indebted 
to Mr. Norton, /. c. 

2 The most remarkable similarities of 
fact and differences of language occur 
in Mark y. 3 ff. ||; Luke viii. 27 ff. 

8 One important observation was 
made by Marsh (Michaelis, Introd. to 


New Testament, v. 317), that when St. 
Matthew and St. Luke verbally agree 
in the common sections, St. Mark al- 
ways agrees with them also. There is 
not a single instance of a verbal agree- 
ment in these sections between St. 
Matthew and St. Luke only. 


204 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


numerous in the recital of our Lord’s words, but the 
coincidences in the narrative cannot be rated at more than 
one-hundredth part of the others. Only one instance of 
verbal coincidence occurs in the numerous sections com- 
mon only to St. Mark and St. Luke, and in this the 
coincidences in the narrative to those in the recitative part 
are as five to one. In the sections common to St. Matthew 
and St. Mark alone a different proportion obtains. In 
these the verbal coincidences in the narrative part are 
somewhat more than one-third of the whole number; but 
it is remarkable that in one important section (Mark vi. 
17—29; Matt. xiv. 3—12) the only trace of a verbal 
coincidence occurs in the words ascribed to John the 
Baptist. 

But in order to give these proportions only their due 
force, account must be taken of the proportion which the 
narrative and recitative parts of the Gospels bear to one 
another. Roughly, then, it may be said that the narrative 
in St. Matthew forms about one-fourth of the Gospel, in 
St. Mark about one-half, in St. Luke about one-third. If 
these proportions are combined with the aggregate of 
coincidences in the several Gospels, and the contents of 
each Gospel represented by 100, the following table is 
obtained : 


(a) (B) (y) * (8) 
Narrative. Recitative. Coincidences. Coincidences. 
in (@). in (B). 
St. Matthew, : 25 75 2.08 14.56 
St. Mark, . : Si) 50 3.33 13.33 
St. Luke, : 34 66 .00 9.50 


Or, in other words, verbal coincidences are more fre- 
quent in the recitative than in the narrative portions of 
St. Matthew, in the proportion (nearly) of 12:5, of St. 

Mark, of 4:1, and of St. Luke, of 9:1. 
Pn πο The general harmony and distinctness of 
rest ae eerie the results which have been obtained by these 

various analyses shows that they must be 
taken into account in considering the general problem of 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 205 


the concordances of the Synoptists. There is a marked 
difference between the composition of the recitative and 
narrative parts of the Gospels. In the former there is a 
prevailing unity, in the latter an individual style. The 
transition from the one to the other is often clear and de- 
cided, and the most remarkable coincidences are, in sev- 
eral instances, prefaced by the most characteristic differ- 
ences. It is evident then that the problem involves two 
distinct conditions, and a satisfactory solution must account 
not only for the general similarity which the Gospels ex- 
hibit in their construction. and contents, but also for the 
peculiar distribution of their verbal coincidences. Any 
theory which leaves one or other of these points unex- 
plained must be considered inadequate and untrue. 

The difference in language between the narrative and 
recitative parts of the Gospels points the 
way to those characteristic peculiarities by ghiyn@areneet 
which they are respectively marked, which "ond with their 
are, as has been already said, scarcely less 
striking than their general likeness. The three records 
are distinct, as well as similar, in plan and incident and 
style. Each presents the form of a complete whole, whose 
several parts are subordinated to the production of one 
great effect. Each contains additions to the common mat- 
ter, which are not distinguishable externally from the other 
parts; and the Gospel of St. Mark, which contains the 
fewest substantive additions, presents the greatest number 
of fresh details in the account of common incidents. Each 
is marked by peculiarities of language, which, notwith- 
standing the limits within which they are confined, pene- 
trate throughout its contents. In many cases, as in the 
genealogies, and in the narratives of the Passion and the 
Resurrection, these differences amount to serious difficul- 
ties, from our ignorance of all the circumstances on which 
the accounts depend; and even where it is not so, they 
are distinct and numerous, and offer as clear a proof of 

18 


206 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


the actual independence of the Gospels as the concord- 
ances offer of their original connection.' 

Such, in a brief summary, are the peculiarities which 
the Synoptic Gospels present, and which the 
true account of their origin must explain. 
This explanation has been sought in the 
application of two distinct principles. One class of solu- 
tions rests upon the assumption that the later Evangelists 
made use of the writings of their predecessors; another 
supposes that the similarity is to be traced to the use of 
common sources, either written or oral. To these distinct 
methods of solution a third class may be added, which 
consists of various combinations of modified forms of the 
two others. 

The first class of solutions contains every possible com- 
bination of the Gospels. Each in turn has 
been supposed to furnish the basis of the 
others; each to occupy the mean position ; 
each to represent the final narrative.? This variety of 
opinion is in itself an objection to the hypothesis, for it is 
a case where it might seem reasonable to expect a clear 
and unquestionable proof of dependence. But it is further 
evident that the assumption of a mutual dependence, 
while it may explain the general coincidences between the 
Gospels, offers no explanation of the peculiar distribution 
of the coincidences, or of the differences between the 
several narratives. [Ὁ appears to be inconsistent with the 
results of a careful analysis of the language and of the 
contents of the Gospels. Every attempt to show on this 


(6) The solutions 
proposed, 


i. Mutual depen- 
dence. 


1 The peculiarities of plan, incident, 
and language, which characterize the 
different Gospels, will come under no- 
tice subsequently; at present, it is 
enough to state the results which will 
be then established. The most minute 
and valuable contribution to the criti- 
cism of the verbal characteristics of the 
evangelists is that of Gersdorf, Beitrage 
zur Sprach-Characteristik der Schrift- 


steller des Neuen Testaments, Leipzig, 
1816, which at the same time offers the 
most striking confirmation of the text 
of the oldest family of MSS., but it 
treats the subject grammatically rather 
than linguistically. 

2 Compare Marsh’s Dissertation, etc. 
pp. 172 ff. The exceptions which he 
notices have been remoyed. Cf. Reuss, 
Die Gesch. d. Neuen Testaments, § 180. 


TIIE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 207 


hypothesis why a later Evangelist has omitted details which 
are noted by an earlier one; why he adopted his language 
up to a certain point, and then suddenly abandoned it; 
why he retained in some sentences nothing more than a 
remarkable word, and in others the fulness of an entire 
answer, has always failed. Nor is this an inconsiderable 
objection. If the coincidences of the Gospels are due to 
mutual use, the divergences cannot but be designed. Such 
a design, however, as would satisfy this hypothesis is not 
discoverable in the Gospels. The true purpose which may 
be traced in the writing of each Evangelist is naturally 
explicable on very different principles from those which 
are involved in the minute criticism and elaborate recon- 
struction of former works. The superficial incongruities 
and apparent contradictions which are found in the differ- 
ent Gospels are inconsistent with the close connection 
which the hypothesis requires; and the general notion is 
as foreign to the spirit of the Apostolic age as it is to the 
current of ecclesiastical tradition. In its simple form, the 
“supplemental” or “dependent” theory is at once inade- 
quate for the solution of the difficulties of the relation of 
the synoptic Gospels and inconsistent with many of its 
details; and, as a natural consequence of the deeper study 
of the Gospels, it is now generally abandoned, except in 
combination with the other principle of solution. 

This second principle consists in the recognition of one 
or more common sources from which our 
present Gospels are supposed to have been 
derivedt But the principle admits of very 
varied application. The common sources may have been 


ii. Common sour- 
ces. 


1 This principle is stated by Epipha- 
nius in general terms: Her. li. 6. οὐχὶ 
Aaa = ae “ ε ΄ 
ἑκάστῳ ἐμέρισεν 6 δεὸς ἵνα of τέσσα- 
pes εὐαγγελισταὶ... τὰ μὲν συμφώ- 
νως καὶ ἴσως κηρύξωσιν, ἵνα δειχϑῶσιν 
ὅτι ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς πηγῆς ὥρμηνται, τὰ 

ae 4 
δὲ ἑκάστῳ παραληφϑέντα (1. παραλειφ- 


ϑέντα), ἄλλος διηγήσεται (]. -ηται) 
ὃς ἔλαβε παρὰ τοῦ πνεύματος μέρος 
τῇς ἀναλογίας. But he does not fur- 
ther explain what he understands by 
“the same source,” though his words 
evidently suit better an oral than a 
written source. 


208 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


written or oral, and thus two distinct theories arise, which 
have in turn been subjected to various modifications. 

The simplest form in which the hypothesis was first dis- 
tinctly brought forward consisted in the rec- 
ognition of certain original Greek documents, 
which were supposed to have furnished the foundation of 
the synoptic Gospels, and then to have passed out of use. 
A closer examination of the synoptic Gospels showed the 
inadequacy of this supposition to explain the phenomena 
which they present; and the historical difficulties which it 
involved were even greater than those of the “supplemen- 
tal” hypothesis. The changing limits of coincidence and 
variation, together with a general identity of plan, remained 
still unexplained; and the loss of a Greek Protevangelium 
necessarily appeared inconceivable. In a short time anew 
theory was proposed. An Aramaic document was substi- 
tuted for the Greek one; and it was argued that the various 
Greek translations of this original text might be expected 
to combine resemblances and differences like those which 
exist in the Gospels. This opinion was not exposed to 
some of the most obvious objections which were urged 
against a Greek original, and it carried the explanation of 
the partial coincidences of the Evangelists one step fur- 
ther; but it was in detail scarcely more tenable. Though 
the loss of an Aramaic text is in itself not unlikely, yet 
the absence of all mention of the existence of such a doc- 
ument is a serious objection to its reality ;* and the trans- 
lation of a common original would not explain the peculiar 
distribution of the verbal coincidences of the Gospels 
which has been pointed out. In addition to this, the exist- 
ence of any single written source would leave the phe- 


a. Written. 


1J. D. Michaelis (Introd. 4th Ed.). 
The idea was first cursorily expressed 
by Le Clere (1716). Cf. Marsh, pp. 184 
ff. Schleiermacher afterwards revived 
the opinion in his Hssay on St. Luke, 
1817. 


2 Lessing (1778); Semler (1788); Nie- 
meyer (1790), ete. Cf. Marsh, p. 186 ff. 

8 Some endeavored to obviate this 
objection by identifying the Aramaic 
Gospel with ‘the Gospel according to 
the Hebrews,” or the Hebrew St. Mat- 
thew. Cf. De Wette, Hinl. § 844. 


THE ORIGIN OF TIE GOSPELS. 209 


nomena of the differences of the Gospels still unaccounted 
for. To explain these, fresh and more complex hypotheses 
were devised.’ It was at last argued that the original 
Aramaic Gospel, which formed the basis of the common 
parts of the three Gospels, was used by the three Evangel- 
ists after_it had been variously increased by new additions. 
It was further supposed that St. Mark and St. Luke used 
a Greek translation of the original Aramaic Gospel free 
from interpolation; and that the Greek translator of ‘the 
Hebrew St. Matthew made use in the first instance of 
St. Mark, where he had matter in common with St. Mat- 
thew, and in other places, where St. Mark failed him, of 
St. Luke This hypothesis is certainly capable of being 
so adapted as to explain all the coincidences and differ- 
ences of the Gospels, as, in fact, it is little more than the 
complement of an analysis of them; but the extreme arti- 
ficiality by which it is characterized renders it wholly im- 
probable as a true solution of the problem. Such a com- 
bination of research and mechanical skill in composition 
as it involves is wholly alien from the circumstances of the 
apostolic age, and at variance with the prevailing power 
of a wide-spread tradition. In dealing with this elaborate 
scheme the instinct of criticism at once anticipated the 
result of closer inquiry. In spite of the acuteness and in- 
genuity by which it was supported, it found little favor, 
and served to bring into discredit the belief in common 
written sources of the Gospels, by showing that any com- 
bination less subtle and varied was unable to satisfy all the 
conditions of the case. 

In the meantime a clearer light had been thrown upon 


1 Eichhorn’s first hypothesis natu- ory of Gratz. Cf. Meyer, Comm. i. d. 
rally intervenes, but it is needless to WN. 7. i. 1. p. 22. 
criticize this, or his later and still more 
elaborate one. The first is examined 2 Marsh, Zssay on the Origin of the 
by Marsh (1. ec. infr.), and the latter first three Gospels, appended to his 
described by De Wette, Hind. § 84 τ. translation of Michaelis’ Introduction, 
The same remark will apply to the the- Ed. 2. Vol. iii. part 2, Lond. 1802. 


188 


210 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


the existence and character of the traditional Gospel,! and 
the recognition of its general influence was 
combined with former hypotheses. It was 
supposed that the Aramaic record of St. 
Matthew and the memoirs which St. Mark framed from 
the preaching of St. Peter were the written basis on which 
the present Gospels were formed by the help of the current 
tradition” But the same arguments which established the 
independence of the written Gospels when their similarity 
was deduced from their mutual dependence, equally estab- 
lish it when they are referred to a current tradition as their 
original source. And, on the other hand, while it is certain 
from the testimony of St. Luke that various narratives of 
the whole or of parts of the Apostolic tradition were cur- 
rent, yet these unauthoritative or partial documents, as has 
been already shown, are incapable of giving an explanation 
of the complicated phenomena of the Gospels, to whatever 
source they are themselves referred. At the same time 
they may have exercised a considerable influence upon the 
mass of Christians, preserving among them the general 
form and substance of the tradition; and while they 
satisfied the want of the Church at large, they may have 
contributed to confine our knowledge of the Lord’s life 
within the present narrow limits by discouraging the 
search for further information. But the existence and use 
of these isolated narratives, like the corresponding records 
of the Jewish tradition, were signs, and not causes, of the 
presence of an oral history; and, as long as the Apostles 
survived, the pure tradition must have been still preserved 
among them, independent of such helps. To seek for such 
fragments in our existing Gospels is simply to open the 
way to mere conjecture. In default of all external evi- 
dence, it is impossible to separate the present Gospels, on 


b. Written and 
oral. 


1 Especially by Gieseler, Historisch- (Hinl. §§ 86 ff.), and with somewhat 
Kritischer Versuch u. 8. w. Leipzig, different details by Reuss (Gesch. d. N. 
1818. T. § 185 ff). . 

2 This view is supported by Credner 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 211 


internal grounds, into any distinct constituent parts. Hach 
is a separate organic whole, simple and uniform, even 
where it has the closest resemblance to the parallel record. 

A fresh attempt, however, has been made lately’ to 
dissect the Gospels into their original com- 
ponents, which claims notice from its bold- 
ness, and serves at the same time as an 
example of the arbitrary results of subjective criticism. 
An original Greek Gospel, containing the records of the 
Baptism, the Temptation in its simplest form, and the 
Passion, is taken as the substruction; and it is further 
conjectured that this was used by St. Paul, and perhaps 
composed by the Evangelist, St. Philip. This document 
was followed by the Hebrew “collection of sayings” (λόγια) 
of St. Matthew, which included the greater part of the 
Lord’s discourses with introductory narratives. Then fol- 
lowed the narrative of St. Mark, which, though an inde- 
pendent work, was yet written by one who was acquainted 
with the two former records. These three elements, to- 
gether with new additions and passages from “a book of 
higher history,” were wrought up into the present Gospel 
of St. Matthew. Afterwards, three anonymous Evangelists 
are supposed to have revised the narrative, which received 
its last form at the hands of St. Luke. Such a hypothesis 
can scarcely claim much attention as an explanation of the 
actual origin of the Gospels, though it may throw some 
light on the growth of the tradition of which they are the 
records. It is as a whole inconsistent with the unity of 
plan and the unity of language by which the Gospels are 
marked. If they were really the mere mosaic which 
would result from such a combination, it would be im- 
possible that they should be so distinctly individualized 
by peculiarities of form and construction which penetrate 
through every part of them. Above all, and this remark 
applies to all the explanations which depend on the use of 
common documents, such a hypothesis is inconsistent with 


The Gospels are 
organic wholes, 


1 By Ewald, Jahrbiicher, 1848, 1849. 


212 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 

the language of St. Luke’s preface, which points clearly to 
an oral tradition as the source of his own Gospel, and by 
implication of the corresponding parts in the other Gospels; 
and this last alternative of a common oral source of the 
synoptic Gospels is, perhaps, alone able to satisfy, simply 
and completely, the different conditions of the problem 
which the Gospels present. 

It has been shown already that the hypothesis of an 
oral Gospel is most consistent with the gen- 
eral habit of the Jews! and the peculiar 
position of the Apostles: that it is supported by the 
earliest direct testimony, and in some degree implied in 
the Apostolic writings. The result of the examination of 
the internal character of the Gospels is not less favorable 
to its adoption than the weight of external evidence. 
The general form of the Gospels points to an 
oral source. A minute biography or a series 


ec. Oral, 


In relation to the 


Jorm and sub- 
Rene of the Goss of annals, which are the simplest and most 


natural forms of writing, are the least natu- 
ral forms of tradition, and the farthest removed from the 
Evangelic narratives, which consist of striking scenes and 
discourses, such as must have lived long in the memories 
of those who witnessed them. Nor are the Gospels fash- 
ioned only on an oral type; they are fashioned also upon 
that type which is preserved in the other Apostolic writings. 
The oral Gospel, as far as it can be traced in the Acts and 
the Epistles, centred in the crowning facts of the Passion 
and the Resurrection, while the earlier ministry of the 
Lord was regarded chiefly in relation to its final issue. In 
a narrative composed on such a plan, it is evident that the 


1 At a later period, Eusebius says of ready quoted. In later times it has 


Hevesippus, that ἄλλα ὡς ἂν ἐξ ᾿Ιουδαϊ- 
κῆς ἀγράφου παραδόσεως μνημονεύει, 
characterizing at once the man and the 
nation. (H. £. iv. 22.) 


2 The hypothesis was first proposed 
in detail by Gieseler in the work al- 


been supported by Guericke, Hind. § 19, 
Thiersch, Versuch zur Herstellung, u. 
8. w. 119 ff, and Norton, Genuineness 
of the Gospels, i. note D. Dr. Davidson 
(Introd. i. 404 ff.) allows considerable 
weight to tradition, while he admits 
the use of written documents. 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 213 


record of the last stage of Christ’s work would be con- 
spicuous for detail and fulness, and that the events chosen 
to represent the salient features of its earlier course would 
be combined together without special reference to date or 
even to sequence. Viewed in the light of its end, the 
whole period was one in essence, undivided by years or 
festivals, and the record would be marked not so much by 
divisions of time as by groups of events.’ In all these 
respects the synoptic Gospels exactly represent the proba- 
ble form of the first oral Gospel. They seem to have been 
shaped by the pressure of recurring needs, and not by the 
deliberate forethought of their authors. In their common 
features they seem to be that which the earliest history 
declares they are, the summary of the Apostolic preaching, 
the historic groundwork of the Church. 

The transition from the earliest oral Gospel to the 
specific forms which it afterwards assumed is 
capable of being easily realized. The great 
steps in the process are still marked in the 
Gospels themselves. The Gospel of St. Mark, conspicuous 
for its vivid simplicity, seems to be the most direct repre- 
sentation of the first evangelic tradition, the common 
foundation on which the others were reared. In essence, 
if not in composition, it is the oldest; and the absence of 
the history of the Infancy brings its contents within the 
limits laid down by St. Peter for the extent of the Apos- 
tolic testimony. The great outline thus drawn admitted 
of the introduction of large groups of facts or discourses 
combined to illustrate or enforce some special lesson. In 
this way the common tradition gained its special charac- 
ters, but still remained a tradition, gaining fixity and 
distinctness, till it was at last embodied in writing. For 
the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke represent the 


and to their subse- 
quent modijications, 


1 Such groups of events occur in the the healing of the withered hand; of 
constant connection of the healing of the fear of Herod, the feeding of the 
the Paralytie and the call of Matthew; five thousand, and the confession of 
of the plucking the ears of corn and Peter. 


914 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


two great types of recension to which it may be supposed 
that the simple narrative was subjected. St. Luke presents 
the Hellenic, and St. Matthew (Greek) the later Hebraic 
form of the tradition, and in its present shape the latter 
seems to give the last authentic record of the primitive 
Gospel.! Yet in both these a common tradition furnished 
the centre and basis on which the after works were built 
up. The original principles of combination regulated the 
later additions, and a clear resemblance of shape remained. 
in the fuller narrative. 

In this way the successive remoulding of the oral Gospel 
according to the peculiar requirements of 
different classes of hearers, furnishes a natu- 
ral explanation of the general similarity in 
form and substance between the several Gospels, combined 
with peculiarities and differences in arrangement and 
contents. The assumption of a common oral source is 
equally capable of explaining the phenomena of the 
language of the Gospels. The words of the Lord and the 
questions proposed to Him would necessarily first be fixed, 
while the narrative by which they were introduced re- 
mained more free. Single phrases would be impressed 
with peculiar force; and the recurrence of strange words 
in the same connection, in the different Evangelists, even 
when the construction of the sentence is changed, seems 
scarcely to admit of a simple explanation, except on the 
admission of a traditional record.2. And while the free 


In relation to the 
language of the 
Gospels. 


μου ἐλϑεῖν, Matt. xvi. 24 || |; γεύσων- 
Tat δανάτου, Matt. xvi. 28 || ||; δυσκό- 
Aws, Matt. xix. 28 || ||; Matt. iv. 5 = 
Luke iv. 9, πτερύγιον ; Matt. vii. 5 = 
Luke vi. 42, διαβλέψεις ; Matt. xi. 11 
= Luke vii. 28, ἐν γεννητοῖς γυναικῶν ; 
Matt. xxi. 44 = Luke xx. 18, συνῶλασ- 


1 The order thus given, St. Mark, St. 
Luke, St. Matthew (Greek), represents 
the probable order of precedence of 
the forms of the narrative which they 
give. It may or may not coincide with 
the order of writing; for it is of course 
possible that an earlier form of the 


apostolic tradition may have been com- 
mitted to writing at a later period. 
This is an important fact which seems 
to have been wholly overlooked by 
critics. 

2 E.g., ἀπαρϑῇ, Matt. ix. 161; ὀπίσω 


ϑήσεται, λικμήσει ; Mark vi. 41 = Luke 
ix. 16, κατέκλασε; Mark xiv. 15= 
Luke xxii. 12, ἀνάγαιον ; Matt. xxiv. 
22 = Mark xiii. 20, κολοβοῦν ; Matt. 
xxvi. 55= Mark xiy. 48, συλλαβεῖν, 
Compare also Matt. iii. 8}. Tas τρί- 


THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 915 


development of common materials gave full scope for 
variations in detail, as well as for interpolations of fresh 
matter, it includes the preservation of language hallowed 
by long use in its well-known shape. Nor is it an unim- 
portant fact, that in this respect also St. Mark occupies 
the mean position between the other Evangelists, as would 
naturally be the case if he represents most closely the 
original from which they started. 

But while it is allowed that the prevalence of an oral 
tradition, varied by the influence of circum- 
stances, might furnish an adequate explana- μάγοι ἀνία ?™ 
tion of the concordances and differences of 
the Gospels, the very plasticity of tradition is turned into 
an argument against the hypothesis. It has been argued 
that tradition is the parent of fable, and that to admit a 
traditional source for the Gospels is to sacri- 
fice their historic value. The objection SE ae 
appears to rest upon two misconceptions, 
It disregards, so to speak, the traditional education of the 
period, and arbitrarily extends the period during which the 
tradition was paramount. It has been shown already that 
the Jews preserved with strict accuracy the interpretations 
of the Law and the sayings of the great teachers; and even 
if it had not been so, it would have been sufficient to point 
to the difference between an age of hearing and an age of 
reading to remove the suspicion raised against the tradition 
of the first age from the uncertainty of tradition now. But, 
more than this, the Evangelic tradition existed as such 
alone only during the lifetime of those who were the 
authors of it. No period was left for any mythic embel- 
lishment. As long as the first witnesses survived, so long 
the tradition was confined within the bounds of their 
testimony ; when they passed away, it was already fixed in 
writing. 


Bovs αὐτοῦ ; Matt. ivy. 10 = Luke iv. 8, coincidencesarc all noted by Bp. Marsh 
προσκυνήσεις, where the Evangelists in his Comment. pp. 211 ff. 
agree in differing from the LXX, These 


216 THE ORIGIN OF THE GOSPELS. 


Other objections may perhaps be urged against the 
hypothesis of a definite oral Gospel,! chiefly from a misun- 
derstanding of the spirit and work of the Apostolic times ; 
but, without affecting to say that it removes every difficulty 
in the mutual relations of the written Gospels, it explains 
so much with perfect simplicity and naturalness, that it 
would be unreasonable not to acquiesce readily in the 
existence of some doubts. Parts of the tradition may 
have been committed to writing from time to time; many, 
as St. Luke says, may have attempted to arrange the whole 
in a continuous narrative, but still it remained essentially 
a tradition in the first age, and as such found its authorita- 
tive expression in our Gospels. Under what characteristic 
forms and with what various shades of feeling the common 
materials were moulded, remains a subject for future 
inquiry. 

1 Hug, Pini. 95 ff. Wiesse, Die Evan- gives a good outline and criticism of 


gelienfrage, 141 ff. Comparealso Baur, the different schemes of the origin of 
Die Kanon. Evangelien, pp. 82 f., who the Gospels. 


ΘΕ ILE AR LY. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten, 
Geh nur im Endlichen nach allen Seiten. — GOETHE. 


Tue Bible, like the Church, gains fresh force and strength 
in times of trial. As long as it is unassailed, 
it is also in a great measure unstudied. It af ee 
is received as a whole with unquestioning ὅς sey v Me 
reverence, but the characteristics of its com- 
ponent elements are undistinguished. A vague sense of 
the general unity of the books of which it is composed 
takes the place of a clear view of their organic union. 
Their independence and variety, their vital connection 
with periods widely separated in time and thought, their 
individual traits and original objects, are neglected in that 
traditional view which sees in all one uniform and change- 
less revelation, neither special in its destination nor 
progressive in its course. 

These remarks, which apply with more or less force to 
all the books of Scripture, are especially 
applicable to the Gospels. The assaults ὦ ἀκ Gn, 
which have been made in late times upon pedal Ὁ. 
their historic truth have brought out with 
the most striking clearness their separate characteristics, 
and it has even been argued that they were composed 
designedly to further particular views. This exaggeration 
of the truth, though wholly inconsistent with their perfect 
simplicity, is yet a valuable protest against that theory 

19 


218 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


which represents them as casual collections of evangelic 
fragments, and opens the way to a true appreciation of 
their claims. Together they bear the same relation to the 
whole apostolic tradition as they bear severally to one 

eel another.!’ The common record and the sepa- 
acter of their a= Yate records have a representative value. 
“ae The three synoptic Gospels are not mere 
repetitions of one narrative, but distinct views of a complex 
whole. They are the same, and yet they are fresh. The 
great landmarks of the history are unchanged; the same 
salient points reappear in all, but they are found in 
new combinations and with new details, as the features of 
a landscape or the outlines of a figure when viewed from 
various points. 

Outwardly, the Gospels are the reflex of individual 
impressions. We never find, even in the 
prophets, that the personal character of the 
divine messenger is neutralized; and much 
more may we expect to find a distinct per- 
sonality, so to speak, in the writing of the 
Evangelists, whose inspiration was no ecstatic impulse, but 
the consecration of a whole life, the conversion of an entire 
being into a divine agency. For the Gospels, like the 
Gospel, are most divine because they are most human. As 
the clear expression of that which individual men seized 
and treasured up as the image of their Saviour’s life, they 
convey to other men the same living picture in the 
freshness of its local coloring. And this coloring is of the 


1. This individual- 
tzed character is 
implied in the idea 
of an inspired his~ 
tory. 


1 A curious trace of the recognition 
of the representative character of the 
written Gospels is found in the inscrip- 
tions of the Gospels in Codd. 69 (Cod. 
Leicestr.), 178: ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ Ματϑαῖον 
ἁγίου εὐαγγελίου κ. τ. Δ. A similar 
inscription occurs in two of Matthaei’s 
MSS. 

It may be observed that the force of 
the preposition in the phrase τὸ κατὰ 
[M] εὐαγγέλιον points primarily to 


the authority and source (e.g., Κατὰ 
Θουκυδίδην), “the Gospel of Christ 
according to [the arrangement and 
teaching of] M.,” though it may, ina 
secondary sense, include authorship. 

From Mr. Serivener’s admirable col- 
lation, I find that the reading in Cod. 
Leicestr. is ἐκ Tod κατὰ [M] εὐαγγέ- 
Avov. In St. John, εὐαγγέλιον ἐκ τοῦ 
κατὰ ᾿Ιωάννην. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 219 


essence of the picture. The only conception which we 
can form of the inspiration of a historic record lies in the 
divine fitness of the outward dress in which the facts are 
at once embodied and veiled. No record of any fact can 
be complete. The relations of the most trivial occurrence 
transcend all power of observation; and the truthfulness 
of special details is no pledge of the truthfulness of the 
whole impression. The connection and relation and subor- 
dination of the various parts, the description and suppres- 
sion of particular incidents, the choice of language and 
style, combine to make a history true or false in its higher 
significance, and belong to that “poetic” power which is 
the highest and rarest gift of the historian. This power 
the Evangelists possessed in the fact that they were 
penetrated with the truths of which they spoke. The 
Spirit which was in them searched the deep things of God, 
and led them to realize the mysteries of the faith, not 
indeed in their infinite essence, but as finite conceptions, 
And would not such writers above all others compose in an 
unconscious order? would not the great facts of the Gospel 
assume in grouping and detail the subjective impress of 
their minds, as they selected and arranged them with all 
truthfulness and divine enlightenment? Popular history 
is universally the truest reflex of popular opinion; and 
where distortion and embellishment are excluded by the 
multiplicity of the record, the human interest of the 
narrative is one of the most powerful means for the 
propagation of the divine message. The Gospel em- 
phatically speaks to men by men, and recognizes their 
intellectual differences, which it converts in different ways 
to God’s glory. In like manner the Evangelists wrote the 
story of man’s salvation, each as the type of one mighty 
section of mankind, as they personally felt the need of a 
Saviour, and acknowledged His power. The truth on 
which this statement rests lies at the very foundation of 
the Christian faith, for as the Son of God was made man 
for our redemption, so the Spirit of God spoke through 
men for our instruction. 


920 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


The contrast between the Gospel of St. John and the 
Synoptic Gospels, both in substance and in 

The diferences individual character, is obvious at first sight; 
not only natural, but the characteristic differences of the syn- 
= ria optic Gospels, which are formed on the same 
foundation and with common materials, are 

less observed. Yet these differences are not less important 
than the former, and belong equally to the complete 
portraiture of the Saviour, which comprised the fulness of 
an outward presence, as well as the depth of a secret life. 
In this respect the records correspond to the subjects. 
The first record is manifold; the second is one; the first is 
based on the experience of a society, the second on the 
intuition of a loved disciple. Even in date they arise out 
of distinct periods. The spiritual Gospel belonged to a 
late stage in the growth of the Church, when Christianity 
was seen clearly to rise above the ruins of an “old world ;” 
the “fleshly” Gospels were contemporaneons in essence 
with the origin of the Church itself, and were shaped by 
the providential course of its early history. But this 
natural and social growth, so to speak, invested the synop- 
tic Gospels with a permanent and special power, which 
must continue to work its effects as long as human 
character remains the same. Each narrative, in which the 
common facts were moulded, was in this way the sponta- 
neous expression of a distinct form of thought, springing 
out of peculiar circumstances, governed by special laws 
of combination, destined at first to meet the wants of a 
marked class, and adapted to satisfy in after times the 
requirements of those who embody from time to time, in 
changing shapes, the feeling by which it was first inspired. 
In whatever view we regard the origin of the Gospels, this 
multiformity appears to be as necessary as it was natural. 
On the one side the separate aspects of the subject and the 
various elements combined in the early Church, on the 
other the recurrent phases of the human mind, which are 
found in every age, seem to call for some distinct recogni- 


| 
Ἶ 


“πα υντυδν» 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 231 


tion, and to suggest the belief that each Gospel may fulfil 
a representative function in the exhibition of the Divine 
Life. Nor can such a belief be dismissed at once as resting 
on mere fanciful analogies, though it is as difficult to 
express in their full force the arguments by which it is 
supported as it is to resolve a general impression into the 
various elements by which it is produced. The proper 
proof of the fact that each Gospel has its distinctive worth 
springs from personal investigation; but such at least was 
the conviction in which the great students of former times 
applied themselves to the examination of the Gospels; 
and the fuller materials and surer criticism which are now 
the inheritance of the scholar, promise proportionately 
larger results to that labor which is most truthful, because 
it is also most patient and most reverent. 

The subject of the Gospel—the history of the new 
creation—the manifestation of perfect hu- 
manity — “the prophetic image of the glori- οἰ % 
fied life” ’— transcends, according to the 
analogy of the earlier Messianic types, the scope of one 
narrator. The first creation was the creation of a harmo- 
nious world, the second was the reunion of the elements 
which sin had divided. Step by step in the progress of 
Jewish history, successive features of the coming Saviour 
were embodied in the Law, —the kingdom, the prophets, 
the seers; and the record of the fulfilment of that to which 
these all pointed could scarcely have been less varied. 
The twofold nature and complete manhood of Christ seem 
to require a representation at least as distinct as the 
prophetic teaching of the Law from the visions of Daniel. 
In earlier times patriarchs and kings and prophets fore- 
shadowed in their lives fragments of the work of Messiah; 
and so when He came, His work contained implicitly the 
fulness of that which they prefigured. The archetypal life 


Ἂ [Εὐαγγέλιον] --- τοῦ ἐξ ἀναστάσεως definition of Basil (De sp. S. xv. ap. 
Biov προδιατύπωσις is the pregnant Suic. Thes. s. y. edayy.). 


19* 


699 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


which summed up the fragmentary teaching of the past 
_embraced the various separate developments of the future. 
On the one side we see the many forms of the humanity 
of Christ; on the other the unchanging immanence of His 
Godhead. The bearings of each act, and the teaching of 
each discourse, are necessarily infinite, for He spoke and 
acted as the representative of men.’ Variety in the record 
is necessary to the completeness of the portraiture; the 
manifoldness even of the outward life of the Lord exceeds 
the limits of one historic type? The written memorial is 
necessarily partial, and, to borrow the language of geome- 
try, superficial; while the living fact is entire and solid. 
To the simple believer the whole becomes intelligible by 
the separate contemplation of the parts. 
And if Christ be our Pattern, as well as our 
Redeemer: if we must realize the fulness of His manhood 
for the direction of our energies, as well as truthfulness 
of His Godhead for the assurance of our faith : —it must be 
by comparing the distinct outlines of His life, taken from 
the different centres of human thought and feeling; for it 
is with the spiritual as with the natural vision, the truest 
picture is presented to the mind, not by the absolute 
coincidence of several images, but by the harmonious 
combination of their diversities. 
The varied fulness of Christian truth is seen from the 
first in the constitution of the Church. The 
ἶρις oes first eircle of its human teachers represents, 
τ chan ee" in characteristic distinctness, the different as- 
pects under which it may be viewed, develop- 
ing in harmonious completeness the outlines which the 
prophets had drawn before It seems, indeed, at first 


Eph. iv. 13. 


+ . - . yy \ / 5 
1 Compare Neander’s Life of Christ, ov ἤρκει εἷς εὐαγγελιστὴς πάντα εἰ- 


§ 71 (E. Tr.); Church History, ii. pp. 1 πεῖν 3; — ἤρκει μὲν ἀλλὰ... [ἐκ τεσ- 
—5 (Ε. Tr.); Olshausen’s Commentar. σάρων] μεγίστη τῆς ἀληϑείας ἀπόδειξις 
Einl. § 2. γίγνεται. 


2 The judgment of Chrysostom in this 8 Neander( Gesch.d. Pflanz. d.Christl. 
respect appears to fall short of the full Airehe, 564—796) has followed out the 
truth (Hom. i. in Matt. ap. Suicer ἢ. 6.) various forms of carly Christian teach- 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 225 
sight, when we picture the apostolic age as a living scene, 
as if all unity of doctrine were lost in the diversities of 
the Apostles, as they appropriated and embodied each in a 
Jinite form the infinite principles of their common Master. 
With some the mysterious glories of the ancient creed 
were mingled with the purer light of Chris- 
tianity ; and they transferred the majesty of 
the Mosaic law, which they had observed with reverent 
or even ascetic devotion, to the new and spiritual faith. 
St James? sets before us this form of Christianity. He 
contemplates it from the side of Judaism, as the final end 
and aim of the earlier training. Standing, as we may be- 
lieve, in a close natural relation with the Saviour, he puts 
aside all remembrance of that connection, and even of the 
personal presence of the Lord,’ that he may dwell with the 
freedom and vigor of a prophet on the principles which He 
had established. His view of Christianity, to use a popu- 
lar word, is objective. In this aspect “faith” is an intellec- 
tual belief in a fact, while “works” are the only outward 
proof of spiritual vitality. The Gospel is contemplated as a 
Law, though it is “a royal Law,” and “a Law of freedom.” 
The essence of external religion (ϑρησκεία), 
which the ancient ritual regarded, is laid open 
in the practice of Christian virtue. Christian- 
ity is thus like a flower, which is fuller indeed and more per- 
fect than the bud from which it opens, while it still rests 
upon the same support and is confined within the same 
circle. 


St. JAMEs. 


James ti. 8; i. 255 
ti. 13. 


ing with equal judgment and sagacity. 
In times of inward discord no truth 
can be more precious than “the mani- 
foldness of Christ in its oneness;* and 
nowhere is it more distinctly seen than 
in the Scriptures. 

1 Cf. Hegesippus ap. Euseb. H. EZ. ii. 
23. 

2 Cf. Gal. ii. 12; Actsxv.13. Though 
St. Peter was “the apostle of the cir- 
cumcision,” he does not personify the 


Jewish party, but rather, as the repre- 
sentation of the Catholic Church, me- 
diates between them and St. Paul. Cf. 
Neander, Gesch. d. Pjlanz. 507. 

8 The name Jesus Christ only occurs 
twice; i. 1; ii. 1; and the epistle con- 
tains no allusion to the Passion and 
Resurrection of Christ, though it pre- 
sents some of the closest parallels to 
the language of the Gospels. Cf. p. 
186 7. 2. 


294 THE CIIARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


The antithesis to this view is found in that of one who 
was called to believe in a glorified Lord, and 
not to follow a suffering Teacher. St. Paul 
was separated from the other apostles by the widest differ- 
ences of habit and training, and the change which attended 
his acceptance of the Gospel was as violent as it was sud- 
den. With him Christianity was not so much a prepared 
result as a new creation; and when the Church chose his 
conversion for special commemoration, it can hardly have 
been without the instinctive feeling that this was to him 
what death was to the other saints, — the entrance into a 
higher life, “Old things had passed away ;” 
and only “faith”—the willing surrender of 
the whole being to a supreme power—was 
felt to furnish the entrance into the heavenly kingdom," 
In such a connection “ works,” which might proceed from 
the spirit of servile obedience, sunk into the rank of a 
mere symptom, instead of being the central fact. Yet these 
antithetical views of “ faith” and “works ”—the outer and 
the inner—are not contradictory, but supplementary. 
They can be no more set in opposition than the convexity 
and concavity of a curve. The common terms must be 
interpreted in accordance with the position of the writers 
before they are compared. And at last the teaching of the 
Apostles must be combined and not identified, for we lose 
the fulness of the truth if we attempt to make out their 
literal accordance. They wrought differently for the estab- 
lishment of the Christian society, and they wrote differ- 
ently to direct its future development. 

But there was yet another side of Chris- 
tianity which was exhibited in the apostolic 
teaching? It was not only a system of practical religion 


St. Pau. 


2 Cor. v. 17 
(τὰ ἀρχαῖα). 


St. PETER. 


1Cf. Acts xiv. 27, ϑύραν πίστεως, 1. ο. ἀπάγγειλον ἡμῖν τίς ἣ ϑύρα τοῦ 
which stands in close relation with the Ἰησοῦ τοῦ σταυρωϑέντος. 
words of our Lord (John x. 7), and the 2The teaching of St. John, as has 
remarkable phrase which occurs in the been remarked already, belonged to a 
history of St. James: Heges. ap. Euseb. Jater period. See Chap. vy. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 225 


and a form of spiritual growth, but it was also a fresh ele- 
ment in the social world. St. Peter exhibited this organ- 
izing power of the new faith. According to the significant 
promise which was expressed in his name,' he laid the 
foundations of the Jewish and the heathen 
churches, while the task of fixing or complet- 
ing their future structure was left to others. 
His activity was not directed by a review of the conditions 
of man’s outward piety, or the requirements 
of his spiritual instincts, but sprung from his 
lively hope in a sovereign Lord. 

Each of the great aspects of human life, outward and 
inward, in the individual and in society, are thus repre- 
sented in the forms of apostolic teaching. The external 
service of God by works of charity, the internal sanctifi- 
cation of man’s powers by faith, and the perpetual main- 
tenance of the rights and blessings of a Church, combine 
to complete the idea of Christianity as exhibited by the 
first circle of the Apostles; and we are naturally inclined 
to look for some analogous variety in the form of the 
inspired records of His life from whence the apostolic 
wisdom came. 

If we extend our view yet further beyond the limits of 
the Jewish people, these different tenden- 
cies which existed among the Apostles will 
be found exhibited on a much larger scale 
and in more distinct clearness. The universality of the 
Gospel was attested from the first by, the fact that it was 


Acts ti. 87—41; 


x. 44—48, 


1 Pet. i. 3. 


8. The forms of 
thought current in 
the Apostolic age. 


1 Cf. Pearson On the Creed, p. 886 n. tis, sed exordium ab unitate proficisci- 


Yet it is of importance to bear in mind 
the distinction between πέτρος and 
πέτρα (Matt. xvi. 18), between the éso- 
lated mass and the living rock. The 
one is the representation of, and sug- 
gests the existence of, the other (cf. 
Donaldson, New Cratylus, § 15). Cypr. 
De unit. Eccles. 4; Hoe erant utique et 
ceteri apostoli quod fuit Petrus, pari 
consortio prediti et honecris et potesta- 


tur [et primatus Petro datur, ut una 
Christi Ecclesia et cathedra una mon- 
stretur. Et pastores sunt omnes, et 
grex unus ostenditur, qui ab apostolis 
unanimi consensione pascatur], ut ec- 
clesia Christi una monstretur. The in- 
terpolation of this passage shows what 
Cyprian would have written if he had 
acknowledged any such claims as the 
Bishop of Rorae makes now. 


226 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


welcomed by representatives of every class; and without 
leaving the records of the New Testament we read that it 
found reception with the earnest Jew who 
was waiting for the consolation of Israel, 
and served God in the Temple with prayers and fast- 
Letts, wigs day and night ; with the retainer of 

Roman. Czesar’s household (Cf. Tac. Ann. xv. 44: 

Pi wT xiii. 32), removed alike from the influence of 
tradition, feeling, or philosophy; with the outcast publi- 

ee Shea; rho stood afar off; as unworthy to ap- 
sie: eoke proach his God; with the Areopagite, 

Acts xvii. 84. awakened to a sense of a future judgment; 
Avexanvrixe. and, finally, with the cultivated disciple of 
Acts xviit. 24, 25. . . enka) 

the Alexandrine Schools, fervent in spirit 
and mighty in the Scriptures.'. And these are not merely 
individuals, but just types of the various 
classes into which the Roman world was 
divided in its religious aspect. The characteristic feelings 
which they embodied express the cardinal tendencies of 
men, and mark the great divisions of the apostolic work. 
The Apostles had to unfold and declare the significance 
of the Past. They had to point out the 
substance of Christianity as shadowed forth 
in the earlier dispensation. They had to make known the 
mighty Lawgiver of a new covenant, the divine King of a 
spiritual Israel, the Prophet of a universal Church, They 
had to connect Christianity with Judaism. 

Yet more: they had to vindicate the claims of the 
Present. They had to set forth the activity 
and energy of the Lord’s life, apart from the 
traditions of Moriah and Sinai; to exhibit the Gospel as a 
simple revelation from heaven ; to follow the details of its 
announcement as they were apprehended in their living 
power by those who followed most closely on the steps of 
Christ. They had to connect Christianity with History. 


JEW. 


As looking to the 


Past, 


Present, 


1 The phrase ἀνὴρ λόγιος (Acts xviii. to earlier notices of Egypt. Herod. 
24)—a learned man—carries us back ii. 3. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 296 


From another point of view they had to proclaim the 
hopefulness of the Z’uture. They had to 
show that the Gospel fully satisfies the in- 
most wants of man’s nature; that it not only removes 
“the leprosy of castes arid the blindness of pagan sensu- 
ality,” but gives help and strength to the hopeless sufferer, 
who has no one to put him in the healing 
waters, while it confers pardon on the return- ga 
ing prodigal and happiness on the believing 
robber. They had to connect Christianity with man. 

Nor was this all: many there were whom their deep 
searching of the human heart had taught to 
feel the want of a present God. These longed 
to see their ardent aspirations realized in the 
life of the Saviour whom they had embraced, and to find 
their hopes confirmed and directed by His own words. 
For such a spiritual history was needed; and the Christian 
teachers had to exhibit our Lord in His 
eternal relations to the Father, alike mani- |Join & 8ι ™ 16s 
fested in the past, the present, and the 
future, as the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Judge. 
They had to connect Christianity with God. 

This variety in the forms of the Apostolic preaching, 
which was directed to meet the hope of the 
Jew and the energy of the Roman, to satisfy Ὁ» Gu 77 
the cravings of our moral nature and the alae’ all 
wants of our speculative reason, could not 
fail to influence the form in which the facts of the life of 
Christ were apprehended and grouped. ‘These facts were 
the groundwork of all Christian teaching, and in virtue of 
their infinite bearings admitted of being variously com- 
bined. In this way the common evangelic narrative was 
modified in the special labors of the different apostles, and 
that which was designed to meet the requirements of one 
period was fitted to meet the requirements of all. For it 
is not enough to acknowledge the marvellous adaptation 
of the Gospel to the apostolic age. It was equally destined 


Future. 


Eternal relations 
of Christianity. 


228 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


for all times; and in this sense our present Gospels, the 
records of the apostolic preaching, combine to form a holy 
τετρακτύς, “a fountain of eternal truth,” in a deeper sense 
than any mystic harmony of the ancient sage. 

There are many whose thoughts still linger in the past, 
ieee and who delight to trace with a vain regret 
thought are repro- “the glories which have passed from earth.” 
or To them St. Matthew speaks, as he did to 
the Jew of old, while he teaches that all which was great 
and good in former days was contained in the spirit, and 
not in the outward shape, and exhibits the working of 
Providence in the course of national history. There are 
many, again, whose sympathies are entirely with the 
present, who delight in the activity and warmth of daily 
life, who are occupied with things around them, without 
looking far beyond their own age and circle., To them 
St. Mark addresses a brief and pregnant narrative of the 
ministry of Christ, unconnected with any special recital of 
His birth and preparation for His work, and unconnected, 
at least in its present shape, with the mysterious history 
of the Ascension. Many, also, there must be in every age 
who dwell with peculiar affection on the Gospel of St. 
Luke, who delight to recognize the universality of our 
faith, whose thoughts anticipate the time when all shall 
hear the message of Christianity, who know no difference 
of class and acknowledge no claims of  self-righteous- 
ness, but admit the bonds of a common humanity, and 
feel the necessity of a common Saviour. And, lastly, are 
there not those, even in an era of restless excitement, who 
love to retire from the busy scenes of action to dwell 
on the eternal mysteries which St. John opened for silent 
contemplation: men of divine eloquence and mighty in the 
understanding of the word, who water the 
churches which others have planted? No 
period of life, no variety of temperament, is left without 
its Gospel. The zealous and the pensive, the active and 
the thoughtful, may draw their peculiar support from the 


1 Cor. tii. 6. 


THE CIUARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 229 


different Evangelists, and find in them their proper end 
and road. 

These reflections, however, anticipate in some degree 
the answer to the question which arises more 
directly from the previous remarks. The ἶἰ Me Feanoel 
varieties of opinion and feeling which dis- eon a. 
tinguished the apostolic age and the body of 
the Apostles themselves, which were indeed only special 
forms of unchanging instincts of man’s nature, suggest 
with more or less probability the antecedent likelihood of 
a manifold — even of a fourfold — Gospel. How far then, 
it may be asked, are our present Gospels fitted to represent 
the influence of these typical differences? How far are 
these differences implied in the character and position of 
our Evangelists? How far have they been historically 
recognized, either in the arbitrary conclusions of heretics 
or in the catholic teaching of the Church ? 

On applying these questions to the Gospels the first 
feeling probably will be one of disappoint- 
ment. It must appear strange that only one fee ee 
bears the name of an Apostle who is dis- ριον im ins 
tinctly individualized in the events of the 
narrative itself. Nor is the obscurity of the early history 
of the Gospels relieved by the clearness of later records. 
With the exception of St. John, no one of the Evangelists 
rises into any prominence in the memorials of the first age, 
and tradition adds little to the few casual notices in which 
their names are found. But if we look deeper, this circum- 
stance is itself a testimony to the simple truthfulness of the 
Ecclesiastical belief, when the names of the Gospels are 
contrasted with the more conspicuous titles of the Gospels 
of St. James and Nicodemus, and the preaching of St. 
Peter and St. Paul; and, on the other hand, all that can be 
gathered from external sources as to the position occupied 
by the authors of the books points to their representative 
character. In the broadest features of time and position 
there can be no doubt but that the Evangelists were widely 

20 


230 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 

separated from one another. Whatever may have been 
the exact dates of the several books, they 
were certainly composed at long intervals, 
still longer if measured by the course of 
events and not by the lapse of years. The first probably 
was composed in its original form while the disciples went 
daily to the Temple at the hours of prayer ; the last when 
Jerusalem was trodden under foot of Gentiles and her 
house left unto her desolate. 'The fundamen- 
tal difference which is involved in this change 
of national position was further increased by 
the personal characteristics of the Evangelists. The pub- 
lican of the Galilean lake, the companion of 
St. Paul, and the “son” and interpreter of 
St. Peter, are severally distinguished from one another no 
less than from the prophet of the Apocalypse; and the 
differences which thus lie upon the surface gain additional 
clearness in proportion as they are traced in detail as far 
as the meagre memorials of the first age enable us to 


yet widely separated 
in date and char- 
acter. Acts iii. 1. 


Luke xvi. 24, 
Luke xiii. 35. 


1 Pet. v. 18, 


follow them. 


Tradition is constant in affirming that St. Matthew 


St. MATTHEW. 


wrote his Gospel in Judea, — “while Peter 


and Paul were founding the Church at 

Rome,” as Irenzeus adds,}—for the use of Jewish converts 
᾿) ? 9 

and in their national language.’ “Having formerly preached 


1 Adv. Her. vi. 25{ap. Euseb. ἢ. £. 
y. 8). 

2 The original Janguage of the Gos- 
pel of St. Matthew and the claims of 
the present Gospel to Apostolic au- 
thority have been made the subject of 
considerable discussion; yet an impar- 
tial view of the evidence which bears 
upon the question seems to point toa 
clear result. All early writers agree in 
affirming that St. Matthew wrote in 
‘“‘ Hebrew” (Aramaic), and from them 
this belief gained universal currency 
till the era of the Reformation (Eras- 
mus). At the same time all equally 
agree in accepting the Greck Gospel as 


the Gospel of St. Matthew, without 
noticing the existence of any doubt as 
to its authenticity. The earliest wit- 
ness is Papias. ‘‘ Matthew,” he says, 
on the authority, as it appears, of the 
elder John, *‘ composed the oracles (τὰ 
λόγια) in the Hebrew dialect; but each 
interpreted them as he could” (cf. p. 
194 n.1). One point in this testimony 
which seems to have been overlooked 
is of importance. The tenses mark two 
periods of the circulation of the He- 
brew Gospel: one during which the 
Hebrew alone was current, and an- 
other in which the original authority 
of Papias lived, when individual trans- 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 231 
to the Hebrews, when he was about to go to others also, 
he committed to writing in his native tongue his Gospel 
(τὸ κατ᾽ αὐτὸν εὐαγγέλιον), and so filled up by his writing 
that which was lacking in his presence.” This testimony, 
it is true, refers to the Aramaic archetype, and not to our 
present Greek Gospel, but that Aramaic record furnished 
at once the substance and the characteristics of the Greek 
revision. The existing narrative is so complete and uni- 
form in plan and style that it cannot have suffered any 
considerable change in the transition from one language 
to the other; and there is no sufficient reason to depart 


lation was no longer needed (ἡρμή- 
vevoe not ἑρμηνεύει). In other words, 
an authorized Greek representative of 
the Hebrew St. Matthew must have ex- 
isted in the generation after the Apos- 
tles. The next witness is Irenzeus, who 
says that ““ Matthew published a writ- 
ten Gospel in the Hebrew dialect” (ap. 
Euseb. H. £. ν. 8), while he everywhere 
accepts the present text as an authentic 
work of the Apostle. The evidence of 
Origen is to the same effect (ap. Euseb. 
H, 1. vi. 25); and it is unnecessary to 
extend the inquiry lower down, for all 
external evidence is absolutely uniform 
in attesting the existence of a Hebrew 
archetype, and the authority of the 
present Gospel as the work of St. Mat- 
thew. But on the other side it is ar- 
gued from internal evidence that the 
present Gospel bears no marks of being 
a translation, that several details in it 
point to alate and not to an early date, 
and that there is no evidence to show 
that any one who mentions the Hebrew 
original hadseen it. The last objection 
is evidently unreasonable. Till it can 
be shown that the writers quoted are 
untrustworthy generally, it is purely 
arbitrary to reject their statement be- 
cause it is not sufliciently explicit. The 
two other facts are perfectly consistent 
with a belief in the Hebrew, original 
and in the Greek St. Matthew. It has 
been shown that the oral Gospel prob- 
ably existed from the first, both in 


Aramaic and in Greek, and in this way 
a preparation for a Greek representa- 
tive of the Hebrew Gospel was at once 
found. The parts of the Aramaic oral 
Gospel which were adopted by St. 
Matthew already existed in the Greek 
counterpart. The change was not so 
much a version as a substitution; and 
frequent coincidence with common 
parts of St. Mark and St. Luke, which 
were derived from the same oral Greek 
Gospel, was a necessary consequence. 
Yet it may have happened that as long 
as the Hebrew and Greek Churches 
were in close connection, perhaps till 
the destruction of Jerusalem, no au- 
thoritative Greek Gospel of St. Mat- 
thew, 7. e., such a revision of the Greek 
oral Gospel as would exactly answer 
to St. Matthew’s revision of the Ara- 
maic, was committed to writing. When, 
however, the separation between the 
two sections grew more marked, the 
Greek Gospel was written, not, indeed, 
as a translation, but as arepresentation 
of the original, as a Greek oral coun- 
terpart was already current; and at 
the same time those few additional 
notes were added which imply a later 
date than the substance of the book 
(Matt. xxviii. 15). By whose hand the 
Greek Gospel was drawn up is wholly 
unknown. The traditions which assign 
it to St. John or St. James are without 
any foundation in early writers. 


232 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 

from the unhesitating habit of the earliest writers who 
notice the subject in practically identifying the revised 
version with the original text, though, indeed, it was not 
so much an independent version as an adaptation of the 


oral Greek Gospel to the “preaching” of St. Matthew.? 


The details of St. Matthew’s life which have been preserv- 
ed are very scanty. 
little doubt that the “Matthew” of the first 


Gospel is the same as the “Levi” of the second 


St. MATTHEW. 
Matt. ix. 9. 
Mark ii. 14. 
Luke v. 27. 


There can, however, be 
b] ᾿] 


and third, though the persons were distin- 


guished even in very early times.” 


The change of name, 


which seems to have coincided with the crisis in the life of 
the Apostle, and probably bore some reference to it,’ finds a 


1 The view which has been given of 
the relation of the present Gospel of 
St. Matthew to the original Aramaic 
text and the oral Greck Gospels, which 
was the common basis of the two other 
Synoptists, receives a remarkable con- 
firmation from the peculiarities of the 
Old Testament citations which it con- 
tains. These may be divided into two 
distinct classes: the first consisting of 
such passages as are quoted by the 
Evangelist himself, as fulfilled in the 
events of the life of Christ; the second, 
of such as are inwoven into the dis- 
course of the different characters, and 
form an integral part of the narrative 
itself. Of these the first class belongs 
to the distinctive peculiarities of the 
Gospel; the second to its general found- 
ation. The one may be supposed to 
have had no representative in the cur- 
rent Greck tradition; the other to have 
existed in a Greek form from the first. 
Exactly in accordance with this suppo- 
sition itis found that the first class is 
made up of original renderings of the 
Hebrew text, while the second is, in 
the main, in close accordance with the 
LXX., even where it deviates from the 
Hebrew. This will appear from an ex- 
amination of the passages in question: 

(i) Peeuliar quotations: i. 23 (καλέ- 
σουσιν); ii. 15, 18; iv. 15, 16; vili. 17; 


Kil. 180 ἘΠῚ: 86, xxi. δ᾽ ἈΣΥ ΤΙ. 9. ἘΠ» 
Cf. ii. 6. 

(ii) Cyclic quotations: iii. 8; iv. 4, 6, 
7, 10 (προσκυνήσει5); xv. 4, 8, 9; xix. 
5 (18 f.); xxi. 42; (xxii. 82); xxii. 39, 44 
(ὑποκάτω); xxiii. 89; xxiv. 15; xxvii. 
46. 

Tn all these cases (ii) parallels occur 
in the other Synoptic Gospels agreeing 
(as St. Matthew) with the LAX. Some- 
times, however, quotations in St. Mat- 
thew eoincide with synoptie parallels, 
where both differ from the LXX.: xxi. 
13; xxvi. 81. In other cases a coinci- 
denee with the LXX. is found where 
the same quotation is not preserved in 
the context of the Synoptists, though 
there is evidence that it formed part of 
the oral narrative: xiii. 14; xi. 10 (cf. 
Mark i.2). Cf. ix. 13 = xii. 7 (καὶ ov); 
xxi. 16. Matt. xxii. 24, 37, are quota- 
tions of the substance rather than of 
the words, and differs equally from 
the LXX. and parallels. 

3leek (quoted by De Wette, Find. § 
976) called attention to this difference in 
the text of St. Matthew’s quotations, 
but did not rightly apprehend its bear- 
ing. 


2 Heracleon Nem. Al. Strom. 


Thies) 


ap. 


3 Matthew, i. e. T2172 = Θεόδωρος. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 233 


complete parallel in the corresponding changes in the cases 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, even if it appear strange that no 
passing notice of the identification occurs in the catalogues 
of the Apostles. According to the present text of St. 
Mark, Levi (Matthew) is called “the son of Alpheus ;”! 
and in the absence of any further mark of distinction, it 
has been usual to identify this Alpheus with the father of 
James; in which case St. Matthew would have been 
nearly related by birth to our Lord. His occupation was 
that of a collector of dues (ὃ τελώνης) on the sea of Galilee ; 
and this alone shows that he cannot have observed the 
traditions of the Pharisaic school.? At a later time he is 
described as a rigorous ascetic, living “on seeds and fruits 
and herbs, without flesh,” * as if, by a natural reaction, he 
had exchanged the license of his former life for the sternest 
self-denial; but this austerity, which was rather that of an 
Essene than of a Pharisee, appears as part of his practice, 
and not of his teaching; nor can it have been without 
influence on the progress of the Christian faith that the 
Hebrew Evangelist was one who, if it was only on the 
narrow scene of a Galilean town, had yet ventured beyond 
the strict limits of national hope. St. Paul, who was 
trained in “the straitest sect of his religion,’ when once 
convinced, hastened to the opposite pole of truth; St. 
Matthew, passing to the new faith by a less violent 
transition, naturally retained a firmer hold on his earlier 
belief. His apostolic commission tended to strengthen this 
feeling; for, according to a very early tradition, he re- 
mained at Jerusalem with the other Apostles for twelve 

1 Mark ii. 14. In this place D and 


some other MSS. read Ἰάκωβον τὸν 
τοῦ ᾿Αλφαίου. The position which St. 


8 Clem. Al. Ped. ii. 1. This trait 
again brings him into connection with 
James “the Just.” Euseb. H. E£. 22. 


Matthew occupies in the catalogues of 
the Apostles throws no light upon this 
relationship (Matt. x. 8; Mark iii. 18; 
Luke vi. 15; Acts i. 13). In these his 
connection with Thomas appears to be 
more clearly marked. 

2 Cf. Lange, Leben Jesu, i. 238. 


The same tradition throws some light 
upon a singular passage quoted from 
the ‘‘ Gospel of the Ebionites:” ἦλϑον 
καταλῦσαι τὰς Suolas, καὶ ἐὰν μὴ 
παύσησϑε τοῦ ϑύειν οὐ παύσεται ἀφ᾽ 
ὑμῶν ἣ ὁργή (Epiph. Her. xxx. 16). 


20* 


234 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 

years after the death of the Lord, busy among his own 
countrymen.’ When this work was ended, he preached 
the Gospel “to others;” but no trustworthy authority 
mentions the scene of his missionary labors, which in later 
times were popularly placed in “ Ethiopia.”? The mention 
of his martyrdom is found only in legendary narratives, 
and is opposed to the best evidence, which represents him 
to have died a natural death. 

These notices, however slight, yet contribute in some 
measure to mark the fitness of St. Matthew for fulfilling a 
special part in the representation of the Gospel. The time 
and place at which he wrote further impress upon his work 
its distinctive character. The Hebrew Christians, during 
a succession of fifteen bishops, outwardly observed the 
customs of their fathers, and for them he was inspired to 
exhibit in the teaching of Christ the antitypes of the 
Mosaic Law, to portray the earthly form and theocratic 
glory of the new dispensation, and to unfold the glorious 
consummation of “the kingdom of heaven,” faintly typified 
in the history of his countrymen. 

The history of St. Mark is somewhat more distinctly 
known than that of St. Matthew; but a 
double name, as in the case of St. Matthew, 
has given rise to the conjecture that two persons — John 
Mark,* the companion of St. Paul, and Mark the Evangelist 


St. Marx. 


1 Predic. Petri ap. Clem. Al. Strom. 
Vi. 5, § 58, μετὰ δώδεκα ἔτη ἐξέλϑετε 
eis τὸν κόσμον μή τις εἴπῃ, οὐκ ἠκού- 
σαμεν. This belief was already “a 
tradition”? in the time of Apollonius 
(ὁ. 180 A. D.): ἔτι δὲ ὡς ἐκ παραδόσεως 
τὸν σωτῆρα φησὶ προστεταχέναι τοῖς 
αὑτοῦ ἀποστόλοις ἐπὶ δώδεκα ἔτεσι 
μὴ χωρισϑῆναι τῆς Ἱερουσαλήμ (Bu- 
seb. H. Κ΄. ν. 18). Cf. Routh, Rell. Sacr. 
i. p. 484. 

2 Eusebius says simply (1. 6.) when he 
went ἐφ᾽ ἑτέρους. The later tradition 
is given by Socrates, HW. 15. i. 19. Cf. 
Credner, Linl. § 35. 

3 Heracleon, ap. Clem. Al. Strom. iv. 
9, ὁ 78. The apocryphal ὁ Acts and 


Martyrdom of Matthew,” which relates, 
in extravagant terms, his miracles and 
death in the country of the Anthropo- 
phagi, contain no fragment of any gen- 
uine tradition, unless it be in the men- 
tion of his Hebrew prayer (Act. Matt. 
§ 22, p. 182, ed. Tischdf.). The names 
Ματϑαῖος and Ματϑίας are constantly 
confounded: e. g. [Hippol.] Philos. vii. 
20, where Miller has wrongly intro- 
duced Ματϑαῖον into the text. 


4 Acts xii. 12, Ἰωάννης ὃ ἐπικαλού- 
μενος Μάρκος; xii. 25, 1. τὸν ἐπικλη- 
ὥϑέντα M.; xy, 87, 1. τὸν καλούμενον 
M. Sometimes simply “ John: Acts 
xiii, 5, 18. 


THE CHARACTHRISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 235 


and “son of St. Peter” —are to be distinguished.’ The 
general voice of tradition is against this distinction ;* and 
the close connection in which St. Peter stood to the 
former Mark, offers a sufficient explanation of the origin of 
the title applied to him. When the Apostle was delivered 
from prison, after the martyrdom of St. James, he went to 
the house of “Mary the mother of John, surnamed Mark, 


where many were gathered 


birth St. Mark was a Jew, and a cousin 
(ἀνεψιός) of Barnabas, himself a Levite of 


together.” 


By 


Col. wv. 10, 11, 


Acts tv. 56, 


Cyprus, from which some concluded that St. 
Mark was of priestly descent.? He appears at an early time 
in connection with Paul and Barnabas, before 
their special commission to the Gentiles ; and 
when this was given, he accompanied them 
on their first missionary journey as their “minister” 


(ὑπηρετής). 


«1οἱ8 xii. 25. 


Acts xiii. 5. 


But after visiting Cyprus, with which he may 
be supposed to have been previously ac- 
quainted, he left them, and returned to Jeru- 


Acts xiii. 13; rv. 38, 


salem, being unprepared, as it would seem, for the more 
b] So 2) ? 


arduous work of the mission.* 


It is perhaps a mark of the 


same hasty temperament that he was ready, not long 


1 The Jate list of the ‘‘ seventy disci- 
ples” contained in the works of Hip- 
polytus distinguishes three, — the Evan- 
gelist, the cousin of Barnabas, and 
John Mark (pp. 9538 f. ed. Migne). 

The title vids (1 Pet. ν. 18) certainly 
seems to mark a natural, and not a 
spiritual, relationship. 

2 It must, however, be admitted that 
the tradition first appears at a later 
time. Itis not, as far as I know, men- 
tioned by Eusebius, or any earlier 
writer; but occurs first in the preface 
to the Commentary on St. Mark, which 
is generally attributed to Victor of An- 
tioch (Cramer, Cat. i. p. 263): Μάριος 
+ +» ἐκαλεῖτο δὲ ὁ ᾿Ιωάννης - andina 
note of Ammonius (cf. Cramer, Cat. ii. 
p. 4) on Acts xii. 15, though with some 


doubt (τάχα οὗτός ἐστι Μάρκος ὃ εὐ- 
αγγελιστής . . . πιϑανὺς δὲ 6 λόγος 


Κ. τ. λ.). Yet ef. Hieron. Comm. in 
Philem. 24. 
8 Prol.in Mare.(Vulg.). Bede, Prol. 


in Mare. ap. Credner, § 48. 


4 Chrysost. ap. Cram. Cat. in loe. 
ἅτε ἐπὶ μακροτέραν λοιπὸν στελλομέ- 
νων ὕὅδον. It has been conjectured that 
the singular epithet ‘‘ stump-fingered ”’ 
(koAoBodaxTvAos), applied to St. Mark 
in the Philosophumena (vii. 30), may 
refer to this as marking him as a “ de- 
serter”’ (pollice truncus, poltroon), the 
physical idea being substituted in the 
course of time for the moral one (Tre- 
gelles, Journ. of Philology, 1855, pp. 
224 ff.). 


236 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 
afterwards, to take part in the second journey of St. Paul; 
and when St. Paul refused to allow this, in 
consequence of his former desertion, he went 
again with Barnabas to Cyprus. The next notice of St. 
Mark, which occurs after an interval of some years, speaks 
of steady work and endurance. St. Paul 
mentions him among those few “ fellow- 
workers who had proved a consolation to 
him ;” and in a contemporary epistle he again 
names him with St. Luke. At a still later period St. Paul 
desires his help at Rome; and it was at 
tome, according to the popular belief, that 
he specially attached himself to St. Peter; but this belief 
may have arisen from the opinion, which was common in 
early times, that St. Peter spoke of Rome 
under the mystical name of Babylon, though 
it is more natural to suppose that St. Mark accompanied 
him on some unrecorded Eastern journey. However this 
may be, his close connection with St. Peter as his “inter- 
preter” (ἑρμηνευτής, ὁ. €., secretary) is well established ;1 
and it was in this relation that he composed his Gospel 
from the oral teaching of his master After the death of 
St. Peter he is said to have visited Alexandria, where he 
gained, according to the strange notion of later times, the 
admiration of Philo, and died by martyrdom, according to 
the common legend? 
It is, perhaps, a mere fancy, but it seems natural to find 
in St. Mark a characteristic fitness for his special work. 


Acts xv. 36—89. 


Col. iv. 10, 11. 


Philem. 24. 


2 Tim. iv. 11. 


1 Pet. v. 18. 


1 Papias (Johannes Presb.) ap. Euseb. mone; habebat ergo Titum interpre- 


H. E. iii. 89 (Μάρκος ἑρμηνευτὴς Πέ- 
Tpov γενόμενος), Ireneus, adv. Her. 
1.1 (Μ. 6 μαϑητὴς καὶ ἑρμηνευτὴς 
Πέτρου) Tertullian, adv. Mare. iv. 5 
(Marcus quod edidit Evangelium Petri 
affirmatur, cujus interpres Marcus). 
The sense of ἑρμηνευτής is fixed by 
Jerome (ad Hedib. ii.): Divinorum sen- 
suum. majestatem digno non poterat 
(B. Paulus) Greci eloquii explicare ser- 


tem, sicut et B. Petrus Marcum, cujus 
evangelium, Petro narrante et illo seri- 
bente, compositum est. 


2 Cf. pp. 191 ff. 


3 Hieron. de Vir. Illustr. 8 (mortuus 
est octavo Neronisanno). The detailed 
traditions of his martyrdom are worth- 
less: [Hippol.] 1. c. Chronic. Alex. ap. 
Credner, p. 100. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 237 
One whose course appears to have been marked through- 
out by a restless and impetuous energy,’ was not unsuited 
for tracing the life of the Lord in the fresh vigor of its 
outward power. The friend alike of St. Paul and St. 
Peter, working in turn in each of the great centres of the 
Jewish world, at first timidly sensitive of danger, and after- 
wards a comforter of an imprisoned Apostle; himself “ of 
the circumcision,” and yet writing to Gentiles,’ St. Mark 
stands out as one whom the facts of the Gospel had moved 
by their simple force to look over and beyond varieties of 
doctrine in the vivid realization of the actions of “the Son 
of God.” For him, teaching was subordinate to action; 
and every trait which St. Peter preserved in his narrative 
would find a faithful recorder in one equally 
suited to apprehend and to treasure it. The 
want of personal knowledge was made up 
by the liveliness of attention with which the Evangelist 
recorded, “without omission or misrepresentation,” the 
words of his master. The requirements of a Roman audi- 
ence (πρὸς τὰς χρείας ἐποιεῖτο Tas διδασκαλίας [ὃ Mérpos*]) fixed 
the outlines of the narrative; and the keen memory of a 
devoted Apostle filled up the picture with details which 
might well remain in all their freshness on such a mind as 
his. For St. Peter himself was of a kindred nature with 


His connection 
with St. PETER. 


1 This same trait appears even in an 
early incident of his life, if Townson 
(followed by Oishausen, Greswell, and 
Lange) is right in identifying him with 
“the young man” who followed Jesus 
at His betrayal with hasty zeal (περι- 
βεβλημένος σινδόνα) and afterwards 
fied with equal precipitancy (Mark xiv. 
51, 52). 

Can there also be any basis for the 
singular tradition which represents him 
as one of the seventy disciples who was 
offended by the hard saying of the Lord 
at Capernaum (John vi. 54), and left 
Him till brought back by St. Peter? 
(Epiph. Her. li. 6). The same story 


occurs in [Hippolytus] (1. 6.), but there 
St. Luke also is joined with him. 

2 This follows from the explanation 
of Jewish customs (ii. 18; vii. 1—4; 
xiv. 14; xv. 6), opinions (xii. 18), local- 
ities (xiii. 3), no less than from the 
general character of the Gospel. 

The idea that the Gospel was orig- 
inally written in Latin (subscriptions 
to Syr. and Syr. Philox., and some 
MSS. cf. Tischdf. p. 325), was a mere 
conjecture from the belief that it was 
“preached” at Rome. The story of 
the autograph at Venice and Prague is 
well known, Credner, § 55. 

3 Papias, ap. Euseb. HI. 2. iii. 89. 

4 Papias, /. c. 


238 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 

St. Mark. He, too, could recall scenes of inconsiderate 
zeal and failing faith; while in his later years he still dwelt 
on each look and word! of his heavenly Lord, whom he 
had early loved with more than a disciple’s affection.’ 
Thus it was that the master and the disciple were bound 
together by the closest sympathy. The spirit of the 
Apostle animates the work of the Evangelist: the spirit 
of his completed life. For St. Peter’s work was already 
done when he had vanquished at Rome, as before in Pales- 
tine, the great Antichrist of the first age : and it remained 
only that he should be united in martyrdom with St. Paul, 


with whom he had been before united by the 


1 Pet. v. 12. 
Phil, 24. 
2 Tun, iv. 11. 


speak to all ages. 


ministry of common disciples, through whom 
the Apostles of the Jew and Gentile yet 


The doubts which attach to the details of the history of 
St. Matthew and St. Mark recur also in the 


St. LUKE. 


history of St. Luke.t 


It has been argued 


from the language of St. Paul that he was of Gentile de- 
scent ;° and in later times he was commonly supposed to 


1A remarkable instance of this oc- 
curs in his Epistle (1 Pet. ν. 2), ποιμά- 
vate τὸ ἐν ὑμῖν ποίμνιον τοῦ Θεοῦ, 
which points significantly to John xxi. 
16. The metaphor does not occur in 
the Pauline Epistles [cf. Eph. iv. 11; 
Heb. xiii. 20; Acts xx. 28, 29]. In v. 3, 
τῶν κλήρων should not be translated 
(as E. V ) God's heritage; but the sense 
is rather: ‘* Be not lords over (Psa. ix. 
81, LXX.) those assigned to your au- 
thority, but ensamples to the flock com- 
mitted to your love.” There is one 
flock, but many Jo¢s; and thus again 
we are recalled to John x. 16, in which 
we are told of one flock (ποίμνη) and 
many folds (αὐλή). 


2 John xxi. 15 (ἀγαπῶ, φιλῶ). 


8 Simon Magus (Euseb. ἢ. £&. ii. 14). 
The true historical relation of this 
*sorcerer’’ to the apostolic work is too 
often neglected, though, indeed, it has 


Ὺ 


not yet been sufficiently explained. 
Cf. History of N. T. Canon, pp. 300 ff. 

4 The original form of the name Lu- 
canus (Λουκᾶς) is preserved in some 
Latin MSS. (a, i, #2 for. Cf. Tischdf. 
pp. 826, 546). Similar contractions oc- 
cur in Epaphras and Silas. 

The identification of Silas with Sf. 
Luke, which was proposed by Evanson 
(Dissonance, ete , pp. 106 ff.), and has 
been lately revived, seems to be incon- 
sistent with the narrative of Acts xvi, 
and to rest on no sound arguments. 
The same may be said of the identifica- 
tion of Luke with Lucius, ef. p. 289, n. 
5. Such conjectures spring from sim- 
ple impatience to acquiesce in the frag- 
mentariness of Scripture. 

5 Col. iv.14, 11. The phrase of ὄντες 
ἐκ περιτομῆς might be used fitly in 
contrast with a Gentile proselyte; and 
it was the general opinion in Jerome’s 
time that St. Luke was a proselyte: 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 239 
have been a native of Antioch,! the centre of the Gentile 
Church, and the birth-place of the Christian name. But 
this belief, though natural in itself, rests on no conclusive 
evidence; and the further details which are given as to 
the mode and place of the Evangelist’s conversion,’ and 
as to his original social? and religious position, can be 
regarded only as conjectures. So much, however, at least, 
can be set down with certainty, that he was the friend and 
companion of St. Paul; and, from a comparison of Col. iv. 
14, with Philem. 24, 2 Tim. iv. 10,11, there remains no 
reasonable doubt that the Evangelist is the same as “the 
beloved physician” who continued alone in faithful attend- 
ance on the Apostle in his last imprisonment. Nor can 
the recent theories as to the composition of the Acts be 
considered to have set aside the natural interpretation of 
the change of person which marks St. Luke as the com- 


panion of St. Paul’s second journey. From 


Acts xvi. 8—10. 


the narrative it appears that he joined St. 
Paul at Troas on the eve of his entrance into Macedonia : 


Licet plerique tradant Lucam Evan- 
gelistam, ut proselytum, Hebrezas lit- 
teras ignorasse (Hieron, Quest. in Gen. 
c. xlvi.). The name seems to have been 
referred to the Evangelist by all the 
early commentators: [Ambr.]; Pela- 
gius; Chrysost. ad Jloc., Adamant. 
Dial. c. Marc. § 1, p. 260, ed. Lomm. 
Cf. Can. Murat. init. Lucas iste medi- 
ONE ae Sep 

1 This is stated first by Eusebius (H. 
E. iii. 4, τὸ μὲν γένος ὧν τῶν am ᾽Αν- 
τιοχεία5), and copied from him by Je- 
rome (De virr. Illustr. 7, Antiochensis. 
Comm. in Matt. Pref. natione Syrus 
Antiochensis), and later writers (‘he- 
ophylact, Euthymius). It is instructive 
to notice how the tradition grows more 
definite in time. Chrysostom, on the 
other hand, while dwelling constantly 
on the associations of Antioch, takes 
no notice of such a connection (Lard- 
ner, Credibility, v. 138). 

2In addition to the tradition of St. 


Luke’s gentile descent and conversion 
by St. Paul (cf. p. 288 nn.), was another 
that he was one of theseventy disciples 
(cf. p. 237, n.1). This first appears in 
the Dialogue against the Marcionites, 
appended to Origen’s works, and seems 
from the context to have been suggested 
by doctrinal reasons (Dial. c. Mare. ὃ 
1, p. 259, ed. Lomm.). It is repeated 
by Epiphanius (Her. 11. 11, p. 433), with 
the addition that he preached in Gaul; 
but Eusebius was unacquainted with 
the legend. Euseb. H. #. i. 12. The 
identification of St. Luke with one of 
the two disciples at Emmaus is equally 
unsupported. 

3 The legend that he was an artist, 
which became very popular in later 
times, is not found before Nicephorus 
Callistus (+1450). Lardner, Credibility, 
vi. 112. 

4 Cf. p. 288, n. 5. 

5 If the reading of D and Augustine 
(De Serm. Dom. ii. 17 (57), in Acts xi. 


240 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


and when Paul and Silas left Philippi, after their impris- 
onment, he seems to have remained there, 


Acts xvi. 16—49. 


and not to have 


accompanied St. Paul on his 


later journeys till after the uproar at Ephesus, when St. 
Paul met him again at Philippi before his 


Acts xx. 6. 


return to Palestine. 


From this time St. Luke 


remained in constant attendance (συνεργός) on the Apostle, 
during his journey to Jerusalem, and on his 


Philem. 94. 
Acts xxi. 1, 17. 
Acts xvii. 1. 

2 Tim. iv. 11. 


voyage to Rome, where he appears to have 
remained till the latest period of St. Paul’s 


life. Of the later history of St. Luke nothing 
is known;' but he is generally supposed to have written his 
Gospel and the Acts in Greece; though even on this point 


tradition is not uniform? 


The distinctive characteristic of St. Luke’s life lies in 
the one certain fact of his long companion- 


His connection 
with St. PAUL. 


ship with St. Paul. 


The earliest writers insist 


on this with uniform and emphatic distinct- 


ness. 


28 (συνεστραμμένων δὲ ἣ μ ὦ ν), rests 
on any early tradition, St. Luke would 
appear to have been in connection with 
St. Paul at a much earlier period. This 
reading may perhaps hang together 
with the identification of St. Luke with 
Lucius of Cyrene (Acts xiii. 1), a no- 
tion which was current in Origen’s 
time, unless it is assumed that the Lu- 
cius in Rom. xvi. 21, was a different 
person (Orig. ad Rom. xvi. § 39). This 
identification has found favor among 
many modern scholars (Lardner, Cred- 
ibility, vi. 124 f.), though it has very 
little in its favor. On this supposition 
St. Luke would be a kinsman (συγγε- 
vys) of St. Paul; a fact which could 
hardly have failed to be preserved by 
tradition. Irenzeus (adv. Her. iii. 14, 
1) points out accurately the companion- 
ship of St. Luke with St. Paul, as 
shown in the Acts. 

1 In the absence of all early evidence 
to the contrary, it may be supposed 


It became a custom to speak of St. Luke as “the 


that he died a natural death. Cf. Lard- 
ner, Credibility, vi. 129. 

2In Achaiz Beotixque (alii Bithy- 
nieque) partibus: Hieron. Comm. in 
Matt. Pref. Compare the various sub- 
scriptions given by Tischendorf, p. 546. 
Some of the copies of the Peshito 
(Jones, p. 159) place its writing at 
Alexandria, an opinion which recurs 
in Ebed Jesu’s Catalogue, Assem. Bibl. 
Orient. iii. p. 3, probably from a con- 
fusion with St. Mark. 

The history of the Acts is generally 
taken to fix the date of the writing of 
the Gospel, which is supposed to fall 
shortly before the close of the period 
of “two years” (Acts xxviii. 30), i. e. 
before A. D. 63. All that can be cer- 
tainly affirmed is, that it preceded the 
Acts (Acts i. 1); for it seems rash to 
conclude that the Acts necessarily con- 
tains the history up to the point of its 
publication. 

3 Cf. pp. 195 f. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 241 
brother whose praise in the Gospel is throughout all 
churches ;”! and, as soon as the time of QOri- 
gen, it was supposed that St. Paul spoke in 
his Epistles of the written Gospel of St. Luke, when he re- 
ferred to that oral teaching which probably itself furnished 
its substance and character.2. Such companionship at once 
bespeaks natural sympathy, and increases it; and whether 
the allusion to “the beloved physician” points 
to any special service which St. Luke had ren- 
dered to the Apostle, or not, the epithet specially arrests 
attention in the connection in which it occurs. Nor can it 
be without influence upon our estimate of St. Luke’s char- 
acter that he wrote the Acts. The very design of such a 
history, if considered in relation to the Apostolic age, was 
remarkable; and the form in which it is cast, portraying 
the development of the Church, “from Jerusalem to 
Rome,” through each stage of its growth, bears witness to 
a mind in which the future of Christianity was more dis- 
tinctly imaged even than in the visions of St. John. The 
book seems in its prophetic fulness to be a true “philoso- 
phy of the history” of the Church. It closes only when 
the Gospel had encountered and conquered a typical cycle 
of dangers. The universal promulgation and gradual ac- 
ceptance of the Christian faith is there already prefigured 
in its critical moments; and the Evangelist who dwelt on 
such a picture must have been naturally fitted to trace the 
life of Christ in its wide comprehensiveness, as the Gospel 
of the nations, full of mercy and hope, assured to a whole 
world by the love of a suffering Saviour.* 

St. John survived to see the outward establishment of 


2 Con. viit. 18. 


Col. iv. 14. 


1E. g. Hieron. Comm. in Matt. 1. α. 
Lucus Medicus, natione Syrus Anti- 
ochensis, cujus Jaus in Evangelio, qui 
et ipse discipulus apostoli Pauli... . 

2 Euseb. H. EZ. vi. 25. Cf. p. 195. On 
the possible use of some written records 
of the life of Christ by St. Paul, com- 
pare Neander, Gesch. d. Pflanz. 131 f. 

3 The special inscription to Theophi- 


lus (Luke i. 8) may seem to be an objec- 
tion to this universality of character 
assigned to St. Luke’s Gospel, but 
really it seems to support it. Theophi- 
lus is evidently represented as a man 
of rank (κράτιστος) and intelligence: 
and the true scholar (if I may so speak) 
is essentially the man of the widest 
sympathies. 


21 


242 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 
that Catholic Church which St. Luke foreshadowed. In 
him two eras met, so that the mysterious 
promise of his Master was fulfilled,’ as he 
“tarried till the Lord came” in power and judgment, to 
sweep away the ensigns of the old theocracy, and appear 
in the Christian body. “The world” might well seem to be 
“ passing away,” as the shifting scene in some great tragedy, 
or rather as the veil which is cast over the Eternal,? to one 
who had passed through the crisis of the first age. He 
who had anxiously followed Jesus into the 
judgment-hall, lived to know that His name 
was preached from India to Spain; he who had frequented 
the Temple, even after he was filled with the might of 
Christ, survived its ruin, and died in a city consecrated to 
the service of a heathen deity; he who would 
have called fire on the heads of the Samari- 
tans, at last speaks in our ears only the words 
of love in a Christian assembly.’ Indeed the 
differences between St. John and the Synoptists—may we 
not say between the Son of Thunder and the Christian 
bishop ?—are so striking that they must be 
ont = yeserved for further examination; yet who 
does not feel that the Apostle “who leaned 
upon the breast of Jesus,”* was naturally most qualified 


St. Jouy. 


John xviti. 15. 


Acts xix. 35. 


Tuke ix. 54. 


1 John xxi. 22, Ἐὰν αὐτὸν ϑέλω μέ- 
νειν ἕως ἔρχομαι, τί πρὸς σέ; The 
stress lies on the idea of an extended 
interval (ἕως ἔρχομαι [1 Tim. iv. 18, 
Vulg. dum venio], donec venio, as Cod. 
Fuld. in y. 23, and Aug. once, iii. 2466 
D.), and not an indefinite and single 
limit (ἕως ἂν ἔλϑω. Vulg. quoad usque 
veniat, 1 Cor. iv. 5). The famous 


John ii. 8, and perhaps App. Afthr. 
117, etc. SpiauBov παράγειν. 


8 Jerome (Comm. in Ep. ad Galat. 
Lib. iii. vi. 10, p. 528) gives the noble 
story, which cannot be too often quoted. 
It is remarkable that it is not found in 
any earlier writer. 


4 Augustine has along and eloquent 


legend of St. John’s grave at Ephesus 
is well told by Augustine, Tract. in Joh. 
exxiv. 2. 

21 John ii. 17, 6 κόσμος παράγεται 
compared with 1 Cor. vii. 31, παράγει 
τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κόσμου. The double 
change appears to be significant. For 
the image of παράγεσϑαι compare 1 


passage on the active and contempla- 
tive lives which he finds symbolized in 
St. Peter and St. John, Tract. in Joh. 
exxiv. 5, which he briefly sums up: 
Perfecta me sequatur actio, informata 
mez passionis exemplo; inchoata vero 
contemplatio manent donee yenio, 
complenda cum yenero. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TIIE GOSPELS. 243 


to record the deepest mysteries of His doctrines? that he 
to whom the mother of the Lord was entrusted was most 
fitted to guard “ the inheritance of the universe ?” that he 
who had outlived the first earthly forms in which Christi- 
anity was clothed must have been able to see most clearly, 
and set forth most fully, its unchanging essence, “as he 
soared like an eagle above the clouds of human infirmity, 
and contemplated with keen and steady gaze the light of 
eternal truth.” ? 

Without exaggerating the importance of such details of 
the lives of the Evangelists as have been just 
collected, it may be said that, as far as they 
throw any light upon their character and po- 
sition, they show them to have represented different types 
of Christian doctrine, and to have written under circum- 
stances favorable for the expression of their distinctive 
views. The places at which the Gospels were probably 
written — Judea, Italy, Greece, Asia, — and the persons for 
whom they were immediately designed, harmonize with 
what may be regarded as the individual bias of the writers. 
So far as any likelihood exists that each Gospel will bear 
the marks of personal feeling and outward influence, this 
individuality is seen to be no accidental admixture of a 
human element, by which the divine truth was marred, 


The generalresult 
of the position of 
the Evangelists. 


1 August. De Cons. Ev. i. 6, 9. Cf. 
Tract.in Joh. xxxvi.5. Restat aquila: 
ipse est Joannes, sublimium predicator, 
et lucis interne atque zterne fixis ocu- 
lis contemplator. By the side of these 
passages must be placed another, not 
less true nor less needful to be remem- 
bered: Audeo dicere fratres mei, forsi- 
tan nec ipse Joannes dixit ut est, sed 
ut ipse potuit; quia de Deo homo dixit: 
et quidem inspiratus a Deo, sed tamen 
homo. Quia inspiratus, dixit aliquid; 
si non inspiratus esset, dixisset nihil: 
quia vero homo inspiratus, non totum 
quod est dixit; sed quod potuit homo, 
dixit (Tract. in Joh. i. 1). The whole 
context, in spite of the strangeness of 
the imagery, is well worthy of study. 


Early tradition is uniform in repre- 
senting the Gospel as written at Ephe- 
sus: Iren. adv. Her. ii. 1; Hieron. De 
virr. Illustr. 9. Cf. Can. Murat. sub. 
init. Compare also the subscriptions 
of the Oriental versions, Tischdf. V. 7’. 
p. 696. The notion that it was written 
at Patmos seems to rest on the unsup- 
ported statement of Pseudo-Hippol. 
De XII Apost. p. 952. 

The date at which it was written 
cannot be determined with accuracy. 
The earliest writers, rightly, I believe, 
place it last in time: [Can. Murat.]; 
Tren, 1]. c.; Clem. Alex. ap. Euseb. H. 
E. vi. 14; (Orig. ap. Euseb. H. Ε. vi. 
25] Jerome, |. ὁ. 


244 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


but, on the contrary, a trace of the working of God’s Spirit, 
by which such persons were moved to write as would best 
represent to the Church the manifold forms of the life of 
Christ. We may detect in every picture of the Saviour 
the unchanging Deity; but at the same time the Absolute, 
so to speak, is clothed in each case with special attributes, 
which are determined by the sacred writers as they dwelt 
on the several sides of Christ’s haman nature. Each gives 
a true image, but not a complete one; and if in old times 
Messiah was variously represented as the second Lawgiver, 
the mighty King, and the great High Priest, we need feel 
no wonder that three Evangelists portrayed His presence 
in the fashion of a man, while the fourth revealed that 
crowning doctrine of the Christian faith, which, if it existed 
in the depths of the ancient Scriptures, had been unob- 
served by the Jew.'| The same Spirit worked in all, — the 
Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, of practical and spiritual 
judgment, — and enabled them to find the perfected ten- 
deney and plenary development of their own hopes and en- 
ergies in the teaching and life of Him in whom all the pow- 
ers of man were united with the fulness of the Godhead. 
The reality of the distinctive characteristics of the Gos- 
pels will appear yet more clearly, if we con- 
ee sider their relation to the different sects 
attested y ~~ Which exhibited the exclusive development 
ofsparatescets, ΟΥ̓ the several elements which the Catholic 
Church recognized and united in her .teach- 
ing.” It has been seen that variety of feeling existed even 
in the apostolic body ;* and when this was reproduced in 
the Christian society, it soon gave rise to those “ divisions ” 
which lie at the bottom of the great parties into which 
Christendom has been since severed. One said, “I am of 
Paul ;” and another, “I am of Apollos;” and another, “I 


1 Just. Mart. Dial c. Tryph.§ 49, p. lowing paragraph in connection with 


268 a. various sects, will be given in App. Ὦ. 
2 The chief fragments of the “Apoc- 8 Pp. 228 ff. 


ryphal” Gospels noticed in the [Ὁ]- 


* THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 945 


am of Cephas;” and another, “I am of Christ;”? when 
the first tidings of the Gospel had hardly died away on 
their ears.2 The inward tendency had already become a 
conscious feeling, and was rapidly hastening towards a 
dogmatic decision. Men were no longer content to find 
that for which they were seeking in the life of Christ; 
they wished to isolate it. The logical exhibition of 
Christianity, its mystic depths, its outward and ritual 
aspect, its historic power, were thus separated and substi- 
tuted for its complex essence; just as the Sadducee, the 
Essene, the Pharisee, and the Herodian, had already found 
in the Law a basis for their discordant and exclusive 
systems.’ Yet it would be an anachronism to suppose that 
the Corinthian Church exhibited at once definite and cir- 
cumscribed parties. The spirit of party was not immedi- 
ately embodied; but in the course of time the fundamental 
differences which it represented were boldly and clearly 
systematized. Some were not content to cherish the ancient 
Law with natural reverence and pride (WVazarenes), but 
insisted on the universal reception of the 
Mosaic ritual (Zbionites). They saw in 
Jesus nothing but the human Messiah, coér- 
dinate with Adam and Moses,‘ and in the Christian faith 


EBIONITES. 
(St. Mutihew.) 


1It is worthy of notice that the 
phrase is ἐγὼ δὲ Χριστοῦ, and not ἐγὼ 
δὲ Ἰησοῦ. The personal name, which 
is universal in the Gospels and common 
in the Acts and the Apocalypse, is nat- 
urally rare in the Epistles, unless the 
human nature of the Lord requires to 
be brought into clear prominence. Cf. 
2 Cor. iv. 5, 10,11; Hebr. ii. 9; xii. 24, 
and often. 

21 Cor. i. 12. Cf. Neander, Gesch. d. 
Pylanz. 824 ff. After all that has been 
written on “the Christ-party,” I still 
believe that the words of St. Paul refer 
to those who preferred to cling to 
Christ alone, without accepting the 
Christian doctrine mediately through 
the Apostles. The present century has 


seen such a sect formed in America. 
It is impossible not to feel that the 
many essays on these ‘‘ parties” are 
conceived wholly in the spirit of our 
own time, without any realization of 
the life of the first age. 

8 Cf. Neander, Church History, i. 
52 ff. 

4 Cf. Clem. Hom. iii. 21 (Adam); ii. 
88 (Moses). Cf. Hom. iii. 20; xviii. 18; 
and iii. 20, [6 ὑπὸ χειρῶν ϑεοῦ κνοφο- 
pndels tvSpwros| ὃς am ἀρχῆς αἰῶνος 
dua τοῖς ὀνόμασιν μορφὰς ἀλλάσσων 
τὸν αἰῶνα. τρέχει, μέχρις ὅτε ἰδίων 
χρόνων τυχών, διὰ τοὺς καμάτους 
Seod ἐλέει χρισϑείς, εἰσαεὶ ἕξει THY 
ἀνάπαυσιν. Cf. Uhlhorn, Die Ποην. τι. 
Recogn. d. Clem. Rom. 164 ff. 


21* 


246 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. * 

nothing but the perfection of Judaism,’ whether they 
regarded this from the practical (bdionites proper) or 
mystical point of sight (Gnostic EK bionites”) St. Paul was 
emphatically “their enemy,” and the universal Gospel 
which he preached “a lawless and idle doctrine.”® By the 
common consent of early witnesses, the various sects which 
arose from the embodiment of these principles agreed in 
taking the “Gospel” of St. Matthew as the basis of their 
evangelic record. This appears to have existed among 
the Nazarenes in a comparatively pure Hebrew (Aramaic) 
form; and even in Jerome’s time the copy which they used 
preserved a very clear resemblance to the Canonical Gospel, 
differing chiefly by interpolations, which were rendered at 
once easy and natural from the isolation of the Jewish 
Christians. The two other parties included under the 
common title of dionites seem to have preserved peculiar 
Greek recensions of the same fundamental narrative. The 
Ebionites in a stricter sense had nothing in their Gospel 
to answer to the first two chapters of our present text, and 
Epiphanius describes the book generally as “incomplete, 
adulterated and mutilated.”> The fragments which he 
quotes point also the further conclusion that it was de- 


1 Either as identifying Christianity 
with the real essence of Judaism (the 
Homilies); or as recognizing in Juda- 
ism the preparation for Christianity 
(the Recognitions). Cf. Uhlhborn, a. a. 
O. 258 ff. 

2 On the twofold distinction in rela- 
tion to the Person of Christ, see Euseb. 
H. E. iii. 27 (vi. 17); Epiph. Her. xxx. 
16. 

3 Ep. Petri {Hom. Clem.) c. 2. τινὲς 
γὰρ τῶν ἀπὸ edvav τὸ δι᾿ ἐμοῦ νόμι- 
μὸν ἀπεδοκίμασαν κήρυγμα, τοῦ ἐχ- 
ϑροῦ ἀνδιρώπου ἄνομόν τινα καὶ 
φλυαρώδη προσηκάμενοι διδασκαλίαν, 
καὶ ταῦτα ἔτι μου περιόντος ἐπεχει- 
ρησάν τινες ποικίλαις τισὶν ἑρμηνείαις 
τοὺς ἐμοὺς λόγους μετασχηματίζειν εἰς 
τὴν τοῦ νόμου κατάλυσιν, ὧς καὶ ἐμοῦ 
αὐτοῦ οὕτω μὲν φρονοῦντος μὴ ἐκ 


παῤῥησίας δὲ κηρύσσοντο-" ὕπερ ἀπείη. 
The whole passage is most instructive, 
and the allusion to Gal. ii. 12, ὑπέστελ- 
λεν καὶ ἀφώριζεν ἑαυτὸν κ. τ. A. un- 
mistakable. Compare also Hom. xvii. 
19, where St. Paul is assailed under the 
person of Simon Magus, with a verbal 
reference to Gal. ii. 11 (εἰ κατεγνωσμέ- 
νον με λέγει5). 

4 Cf. Hieron. ad. Matt. xii. 18; De 
virr. Illustr. 3. 

5 Epiph. Her. xxx. 18, οὐχ ὅλον 
πληρέστατον ἀλλὰ νενοϑευμένον καὶ 
ἠκρωτηριασμένον. On the other hand, 
the Nazarenes ἔχουσι τὸ κατὰ Ματ- 
ϑαῖον εὐαγγέλιον πληρέστατον' EBpa- 
tort (Her. xxix.9), though Epiphanius, 
in the next sentence, says that he does 
not know whether “‘ they removed the 
genealogy.” Yet cf. Her. xxx. 14. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 9247 


rived from the Aramaic, and not from the Greek text. But 
it was otherwise with the Gnostic-Ebionite Gospel. The 
text of this’ presents the most constant coincidence with 
the language of the Greek St. Matthew, and it can hardly 
have been derived from any other source. The variations 
which it presents are generally such as admit of explanation 
from polemical motives, and where it is not so, allowance 
must still be made for freedom of quotation, and for the 
influence of tradition.2 One fact, however, is clearly prom- 
inent throughout these intelligible varieties of recension, 
that the Gospel of St. Matthew was felt to be distinctively 
the Jewish Gospel. The life of the second Lawgiver was 
the common foundation which Judaizing Christians of 
every shade of opinion used for the construction of their 
distinctive records. 

The special history of the Gospel of St. Mark is more 
obscure. Even at the beginning of the fifth 
century no distinct commentary upon it was Meena 
yet written The “preaching of Peter,” 
which enjoyed a wide popularity in the second and third 
centuries, has nothing but the name in common with St. 
Mark;* and the accounts of “the Gospel according to 
Peter” are so meagre that no satisfactory conclusion can 
be drawn as to its origin and characteristics. Yet there is 
one clear and decided statement that some sectarians paid a 
peculiar regard to the Gospel of St. Mark. After noticing 
the exclusive reverence which the Ebionites and Marcion- 
ites paid respectively to the Gospels of St. Matthew and 

ν΄ 


_. 1As gathered specially from the 5. It is, however, worthy of notice 
Clementines. that St. Peter is represented as urging 
2 Passages occur which show clearly his hearers in the same terms to avoid 

that the writer of the Homilies was the Pagan and Jewish forms of worship. 

acquainted with the contents of the Cf. Credner, Beitrage, i. 351 ff. Schwe- 
three other canonical Gospels. Cf. gler, Nachapost. Zeit. ii. 30 ff. 

Canon of N. T. p. 317. 

8 Cramer, Cat. in Marc. Hypoth. p. 5 Cf. Serapion, ap. Euseb. H. £. vi. 

263 ( Victor Ant.). 12. Routh, Rell. Sacr. i. pp. 452 ff 
4 See particularly the passagesquoted Serapion connects the Gospel with 

by Clement of Alexandria, Strom. yi. Marcianus (7 Marcus) and the Docetez. 


248 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


St. Luke, Irenreus adds that those who separated Jesus 
from Christ,—the human instrument fiom the divine 
Spirit, — maintaining that Jesus suffered, while Christ con- 
tinued always impassible, preferred the Gospel according 
to St. Mark.’ It might seem that they dwelt more partic- 
ularly on the works of Messiah’s power, and not on the 
mystery of His incarnation; and found their Gospel in 
the recital of miracles and mighty acts, which bore the 
impress of God, rather than in words and discourses which 

might seem like those of man. 
It has been seen that the Gospel of St. Matthew under- 
went several recensions. The developments 


MARCIONITES. acon 5 eaten . 
ἜΩΣΙΝ of the Judaizing ‘tendency were various, for 
it was the spirit of a people and not of an 

individual. But the doctrine of St. Paul, which bore 


the clear image of one mind, was made the basis of a 
single marked system. In the first half of the second 
century, Marcion, the son of a Bishop of Sinope,? gave his 
name and talents to a sect which proposed to hold the 
perfected doctrines of the Gentile Apostle. So far from 
finding any right of perpetuity in the Jewish Law, he 
ascribed its origin to the Demiurge, from whose evil rule 
men were set free by the Saviour. In Christianity, accord- 
ing to his view, all was sudden and unprepared :* a new 
and spiritual religion was revealed immediately from 
heaven to supplant the earthly kingdom which had been pro- 


2 Epiph. Her. xiii. 1 [Tertull.] de 
Prescr. Her. li. The statement, how- 
ever, has been doubted, for Tertullian 
takes no notice of it. The writer un- 
der the name of Tertullian attributes 
to Cerdo the Canon which is elsewhere 
assigned to Marcion. 


lTren. adv. Her. iii. 11, 7. Qui 
autem Jesum separant a Christo, et 
impassibilem perseverasse Christum, 
passum vero Jesum dicunt, id quod se- 
cundum Marcum est preferentes Evan- 
gelium, cum amore veritatis legentes 
illud corrigi possunt. Olshausen (Zchth. 
d. Evang. 97) rejects this statement, but 
without sufiicient ground. The de- 
scription which Irenzus gives agrees 


8 Tertull. adv. Mare. iv. 11; Subito 
Christus; subito et Johannes. Sic sunt 


with a form of Docetism which (cf. p. 
247 n. 4) was actually connected with 
the Gospel according to Peter. Cf. 
[Hippol.] adv. Her. viii. 10, p. 267. 


omnia apud Marcionem, que suum et 
plenum ordinem habent apud creato- 
rem. Cf: iii. 6. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 249 


mised to the people of Israel by their God. As a necessary 
consequence of his principles, Marcion could not accept the 
Catholic Canon of the Scriptures, but formed a new one 
suited to the limits of his belief. His “ Apostolicon” was 
confined to ten Epistles of St. Paul, and his Gospel was a 
mutilated recension of St. Luke! For him the Pauline 
narrative was the truest picture of the life of Christ, though 
even this required to be modified by a process which was 
easily practicable at a time when the Evangelic text was 
not yet fixed beyond the influence of tradition. 

The peculiar characteristics of St. John’s Gospel could 
not fail to attract some of the early mystic 
schools. The deep significance of its lan- 
guage, the symbolic use of the words “light” 
and “darkness,” “life” and “death,” “the world,” “the 
word,” and “the truth,” furnished the Eastern speculator 
with a foundation for*his favorite theories. If we may 
trust Irenzeus,? the terminology of the Valentinians was 
chiefly derived from that of St. John; and, conversely, in 
recent times many have supposed that the Gospel itself 
was due to Gnostic sources. The affinity which it has 
with part of the Gnostic scheme is at least undoubted; and 
Heracleon, the most famous scholar of Valentinus, wrote 
the first commentary upon it,® following, according to 
Tertullian, his master’s example, in using “the pen instead 
of the knife to bring the Scriptures into agreement with 
his tenets.” 4 

This severance of the Gospel-histories by different sects 
exhibits most distinctly the reality and nature of their 
difference. Tor if they have no special character, on what 
hypothesis can we explain their connection with partial 


The VALENTIN- 
TANS. 
(St. John.) 


1 After Jong discussion even the Tii- 
bingen critics appear to have acquiesced 
in the belief that the Gospel of St. Luke 
is the original document (Herzog, En- 
cyclop. s. v.). Cf. Hist. af N. T. Canon, 
801 f. 2 

2 Tren. adv. Her. i. 8,5: πατέρα yap 


εἴρηκεν [ὃ “Iwavyns| καὶ Χάριν καὶ 
Movoyev} καὶ ᾿Αλήϑειαν καὶ Δόγον καὶ 
Ζωὴν καὶ ΓΑνῶρωπον καὶ ᾿Εκκλησίαν. 

8 Cf. Orig. in Joh. x. § 21. 
NV. T. Canon, 334 ff. 


4 Tertull. de Prescr. Her. 88. 


Hist. of 


250 TIE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 
exhibitions of Christian truth? How were the separate 
books adopted by peculiar schools, which pursued to an 
excess the idea which we have supposed to predominate in 
them? Those who admitted only one Gospel, even if they 
mutilated and altered it, must have found in it some pecu- 
liar points of contact with their own position; and rightly 
found them, for heresy is but the inordinate desire to 
define, distinguish, and isolate those manifold elements 
which are combined in the perfect truth. 

Sectaries divided the Gospels as being separately com- 
plete; the Church united them, as constitu- 
ents of a harmonious whole. The first 
distinct recognition of the four Gospels 
presents them also as one. “The Creator Word, who sits 
upon the Cherubim, when manifested to men, gave us the 
Gospel in a fourfold form, while it is held together by one 
Spirit ;” and in the same place Irenzeus labors to prove, by 
various analogies, that the Gospels could not be more or 
fewer than four, the number of the faces of the Cherubim, 
which were “images of the life and work of the Son of 


(Ὁ) The judgment 
of the Church. 


God.”' The same mysterious emblem of 
cols, Beangelic ~Fizekiel was constantly applied to the Evan- 
symbols. 


gelists in later times throughout the Christian 
world, but generally as modified in the Apocalypse, where 
the idea of individual life prevails over that of a common 
being. Yet, while the early fathers agreed in the general 
explanation of the vision, they differed widely in details? 


1Iren, adv. Her. iii. 11, 8: 6 τῶν 
ε / / , 
ἁπάντων τεχνίτης λόγος, ὃ καϑδήμενος 
ἐπὶ τῶν Χερουβὶμ. καὶ συνέχων τὰ πάν- 
΄“ Ἷ 4 oA 
τα, φανερωδεὶς τοῖς avdparots, ἔδωκεν 
ἡμῖν τετράμορφον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ἑνὶ 
δὲ πνεύματι συνεχόμενον ... kal yap 
r \ 
τὰ Χερουβὶμ τετραπρόσωπα' καὶ yap 
τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν εἰκόνες τῆς πραγ- 
ματείας τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. 


2 Trenzeus (1. 6.) regarding, as Augus- 
tine remarks (De Cons. Ev. i. 9 [6)), 


only the commencement, and not the 
scope, of the books, assigns the ‘‘ man” 
to St. Matthew, the ‘‘eagle” to St. 
Mark, the ‘dion to St. John, and the 
“or” to St. Luke. This opinion is 
repeated by Juvencus, Lv. Hist. Pref. 
The opinion of Jerome is followed by 
Ambrose (in Luc. Pref. §§ 7, 8; cf. 
Comm. in Lue. x. 117, 118); Sedulius, 
Carm. Pasch. i. 355 ff., and generally 
in later times. ΑἹ] writers agree in 
assigning the “ox” to St. Luke. 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 254 


In the West, the interpretation of Jerome gained almost 
universal currency, and in later times he has been confirm- 
ed by the usage of art. According to this the “man” js 
assigned to St. Matthew, the “lion” to St, Mark, the “ox” 
to St. Luke, and the “eagle” to St. John, as typifying 
respectively the human, active, sacrificial, and spiritual 
sides of the Gospel. Augustine, who inverts the order of 
the first two symbols, and probably with justice, agrees 
with Jerome in drawing a line between the creatures of 
the earth and of the sky ;? and a trace of this distinction is 
found at a still earlier period. Clement of Alexandria 
relates it as a current tradition in his time, that “St. John, 
when he found in the Writings of the other Evangelists the 
bodily history of the Lord, composed a spiritual Gospel,” § 
and such language is not an inapt description of the relation 
of the Synoptists to St. John. 

But though the early Church apprehended with distinct- 
ness the characteristics of the Gospels, Au- 
gustine seems to have been the first who Pee eign 
endeavored to explain their minute differ- 
ences by a reference to their general aim; and his work is 
better in conception than in execution. The age was 
hardly ripe for the task; and Augustine had not the critical 
tact for performing it. The mass of Christians too gladly 
welcomed the inspired histories on their apostolic claims to 
submit their composition and arrangement to internal 
scrutiny. It was enough for them that they were written 
by holy men of God, without attempting to determine 
their mutual relations. And even the scholars among 
them were better qualified to discuss the manifold bearings 
of an isolated passage, than to form a general idea of the 


1 These emblems of the Evangelists terwards they appear as four streams 
are not, however, found before the issuing from a rock, on which Christ, 
Mosaics of the 15th century (Miinter, or the Lamb, or the Cross, stands (cf. 
Sinnbilder d. Alten Christen, i. pp. 44 Cypr. Ep. 73, 10). 
ff). The earliest symbols are four rolls 2 Hieron. in Ezek. i. 7 ff. Aug. De 
round a representation of the feeding Cons. Ev.1. c. 
of the 4000 (Miinter, i. 44) Pl.13.) ΑΕ 8 Clem. Al. ap. Euseb. H. Ε. yi. 14. 


D252 THE CIIARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. 


historic features of a whole book. On the other hand, we 
must remember that a rich inheritance of tradition was 
treasured up in the early Church; and the attempt of 
Augustine, combined with the general statements of former 
writers, sufficiently shows the method in which these would 
have sought for an explanation of the variations of the 
Evangelisis. His essay is the formal expression of their 
silently-recognized belief. 

The view which has just been sketched of the relation 

pias of the*canonical Gospels to the varieties of 
of this view of the Opinion existing in the apostolic age, and to 
Ang the great principles from which they spring, 
which are as permanent as human nature itself, suggest 
necessarily various reflections as to their relation to our- 
selves. Above all, it will remove that dead conception of 
a verbal harmony between them which is fatal to their 
true understanding. Their real harmony is essentially 
moral, and not mechanical. It is not to be found in an 
ingenious mosaic, composed of their disjointed fragments, 
but in the contemplation of each narrative from its proper 
point of sight. The threefold portrait of Charles I. which | 
Vandyke prepared for the sculptor is an emblem of the 
work of the first Evangelists: the complete outward shape is 
fashioned, and then, at last, another kindles the figure with 
a spiritual life. Nor are the separate portraitures less 
pregnant with instruction than when they were originally 
drawn. If we study the records in their simple individu- 
ality, forgetting for the time the other traits which fill up 
the picture, we shall probably find more in this view of 
their distinctness than a mere speculation ; it will show us 
the life of Christ in relation to the master-spirit of our 
own constitution. The Gospel will be seen to be particu- 
lar, as well as universal. We shall gain a conception of 
the multiform aspects of Christianity in the many-sided 
presence of its Founder. We shall see its manifoldness, as 
well as its unity. We shall no longer regard it as a phil- 
osophic ideal of religion, but as a living revelation, devel- 


THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE GOSPELS. O58 


oped and perfected among men. We shall recall the 
period when the several Gospels satisfied the various moral 
and spiritual wants which must remain the same to the 
end of time, and trace the divine sanction which they give 
to the different tendencies of human thought and action. 
We shall rise upwards from the perception of individuality 
to that of variety; from variety to catholicity. The vari- 
ous outward forms of Evangelic teaching, recognized by 
the Apostles and ratified by the Church, will teach us to 
look for some higher harmony in faith than simple unison. 
We shall acknowledge that it is now as in days of old, 
when the same unchanging scheme of redemption proceed- 
ing from one God, “seeking the weal of men through 
divers ways by one Lord,” was seen under changeful 
varieties of external shape.! The lesson of experience 
and history, the lesson of reason and life, will be found 
written on the very titles of the Gospels, where we shall 
read with growing hope and love that “God fulfils Himself 
in many ways.” 


1 Clem. Alex. Strom. vi. 13, § 106: ληφϑεῖσα. ἀκόλουϑον γὰρ εἶναι μίαν 
μία yap τῷ ὄντι διαϑήκη ἣ σωτήριος ἀμετάϑετον σωτηρίας δόσιν παρ᾽ ἑνὸς 
ἀπὸ μεταβολῆς κόσμου εἰς ἡμᾶς διή- Θεοῦ Sv ἑνὸς κυρίου πολυτρόπως ὦφε- 
κουσα κατὰ διαφόρους γενέας τε καὶ λοῦσαν. .. . Cf. Lib. vii. 17, § 107. 
χρόνους διάφορος εἶναι τὴν δόσιν ὑπο- 


22 


CHAP ΒΓΕ 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


Two worlds are ours: ’tis only Sin 
Forbids us to descry 

The mystic heaven and earth within, 
Plain as the sea and sky. — KEBLE. 


ΤΥ is impossible to pass from the Synoptic Gospels to 
that of St. John without feeling that the 

make general con + vonsition involves the passage from one 
yomuand te Si world of thought to another. No familiarity 
with the general teaching of the Gospels, no 

wide conception of the character of the Saviour, is suflici- 
ent to destroy the contrast which exists in form and spirit 
between the earlier and later narratives; and a full recog- 
nition of this contrast is the first requisite for the under- 
standing of their essential harmony. The Synoptic Gos- 
pels contain the Gospel of the infant Church; that of St. 
John the Gospel of its maturity. The first combine to 
give the wide experience of the many; the last embraces 
the deep mysteries treasured up by the one. All alike are 
consciously based on the same great facts; but yet it is 
possible, in a more limited sense, to describe the first as 
historical, and the last as ideal; though the history neces- 
sarily points to truths which lie beyond all human experi- 
ence, and the “ideas” only connect that which was once 
for all realized on earth with the eternal of which it was 
the revelation. This broad distinction renders it necessary 
to notice several points in the Gospel of St. John, both in 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 25a 


itself and in its relation to the Synoptic Gospels, which 
seem to be of the greatest importance to- 
wards the right study of it. No writing, per- 
haps, if we view it simply as a writing, com- 
bines greater simplicity with more profound depths. At 
first all seems clear in the child-like language which is so 
often the chosen vehicle of the treasures of Eastern medi- 
tation; and then again the utmost subtlety of Western 
thought is found to lie under abrupt and apparently frag- 
mentary utterances. The combination was as natural in 
the case of St. John, as it was needful to complete the 
eycle of the Gospels. The special character of the Gospel 
was at once the result and the cause of its special history ; 
and when we have gained a general conception of the 
Gospel in itself, the relations of difference or agreement in 
which it stands to the other narratives will at once become 
intelligible. 

The facts bearing on the life of St. John which are 
recorded in the Gospels are soon told. He 
was the son, apparently the younger son,! of 
Zebedee and Salome? His father was a 
Galilzean fisherman, sufficiently prosperous to 
have hired servants,’ and, at a later time, his 
mother was one of the women who followed the Lord, and 
“ministered to Him of their substance.”* Nothing is 
recorded which throws any light upon the character of 
Zebedee, except the simple fact that he interposed no 


Characteristics of 
St. John. 


I. The Gospel in 
itself. 


1. Its history. 


(a) The life of St. 
John. 


1 That he was the younger son ap- 
pears to follow from the order in which 
the names “James and John the 
brother of James” are generally given 
in the Gospels; Matt. iv. 21, etc.; 
Mark i. 21, ete.; Luke v. 10, ete. The 
names occur in the other order, “ Pe- 
ter, John, and James,” in Luke viii. 51; 
ix. 28, though the reading is doubtful. 
In Acts xii. 2, James is styled “ the 
brother of John.” 

2 Mark xy. 40; xvi. 1, compared with 
Matt. xxvii. 56. From the comparison 


of the Jast passage with John xix. 26, 
it has been concluded that Salome was 
the sister of ‘‘ the mother of the Lord,” 
but the interpretation of the passage is 
uncertain. Later traditions suppose 
various other relationships between the 
families of Joseph and Mary and Zebe- 
dee. Cf. Winer, RWB. Salome ; Thilo, 
Cod. Apocr. 3862 ff. 


8 Mark i. 20. Cf. John xix. 27. 


4 Mark xvi. 1, compared with Luke 
Vili. 3. 


256 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 
obstacle to his sons’ apostleship; but Salome herself went 
with Christ even to His death, and the very greatness of 
her request? is the sign of a faith living and fervent, how- 
ever unchastened. St. John, influenced it may be by his 
mother’s hopes, and sharing them, although “simple and 
unlettered,”? first attached himself to the Baptist, and was 
one of those to whom Jesus was revealed by him as “the 
Lamb of God.”® Henceforth he accompanied his new 
Master, and, together with his brother and St. Peter, was 
admitted into a closer relationship with Him than the 
other Apostles.t In this nearer connection St. John was 
still nearest,® and as he followed Christ to judgment and 
death,® he received from the Cross the charge to receive 
the mother of the Lord as her own son.’ After the Ascen- 
sion St. John remained at Jerusalem with the other Apos- 
tles. He was with St. Peter at the working of his first 
miracle; and afterwards he went with him to Samaria.’ 
At the time of St. Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem he was 
absent from the city; but on a later occasion St. Paul de- 
scribes him as one of “the pillars of the Church.”? At 
what time, and under what circumstances, he left Jerusalem 
is wholly unknown; but tradition is unanimous in placing 
the scene of his after-labors at Ephesus.’ His residence 
there must have taken place after St. Paul’s departure, but 
this is all that can be affirmed with certainty. It is gene- 
rally agreed that he was banished to Patmos during his 
stay at Ephesus, but the time of his exile is very variously 


given” The legend of his sufferings at Rome, which was 


1 Matt. xx. 20 ff. Cf. Mark x. 35 ff. 
The same characteristic appears under 
a different form in the wish of her two 
sons, Luke ix. 54; and in spite of other 
interpretations, it is best to refer the 
surname, Boanerges (Mark iii. 16), 
which is applied to them, to a natural 
warmth of temperament. 

2 Acts iv. 18. 

ὃ. John i. 35 ff. 

4 Luke viii. 51 (at the house of Jai- 


rus); ix. 28 (at the Transfiguration); 
Mark xiv. 83 (at Gethsemane). 

5 John xiii. 23; xxi. 7, 20 (μ: ὃν 
ἠγάπα ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦ). 

6 John xviii. 15; xix, 26. 

7 John xix. 27. 

8 Acts i. 18; iii. 1 ff; viii. 14 

9 Gal. i. 18 ff.; ii. 9. 

10 Iren. adv. Her. iii. 1, 1. 

11 Tren. v. 80, 3(Euseb. H. 17. v. 8) (Do- 
mitian); Epiph. Her. 51, 33 (Claudius). 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. O57 


soon embellished and widely circulated, is quite untrustwor- 
thy ;1 and the details of his death at Ephesus are equally 
fabulous, though it is allowed on all hands that he lived to 
extreme old age.’ 

But while no sufficient materials remain for constructing 
a life of the Apostle, the most authentic tra- 
ditions which are connected with his name 
contribute something to the distinctness of his portraiture? 
The lessons of his Epistles and Gospel are embodied in 
legends which characterize him as the zealous champion of 
purity of faith and practice within the Christian body, and 
in one legend, at least, the symbolism of the Jewish 
dispensation is transferred to the service of Christianity, as 
in the visions of the Apocalypse. On the one hand St. 
John proclaims with startling severity the claims of 
doctrinal truth,* and the duties of the teacher;° on the 
other he stands out in the majesty of a sacred office, 
clothed in something of the dress of the old theocracy$ 
The two views involve no contradiction, but rather exhibit 
the wide range of that divine love which cherishes every 
element of truth with the most watchful care, because it is 
of infinite moment for the well-being of man. The associ- 


Later legends. 


1 Tertull. de Prescr. Her. 33:.... μεν, μὴ καὶ τὸ βαλανεῖον συμπέσῃ, 
in oleum igneum demersus nihil passus ἔνδον ὄντος Κηρίνϑου, τοῦ τῆς ἀλε- 
est. Hieron. ad Matt. xx. 28. elas ἐχϑροῦ. Cf. Epiph. Her. xxx. 


2 Tren. ii. 22,5: μέχρι τῶν Τραϊάνου 
χρόνων. Hieron. ad Galat. vi.10. For 
the traditions which describe him as 
still living in his tomb at Ephesus, com- 
pare Credner, Hind. 220f. The passage 


24, where a similar legend is told of St. 
John and “ Ebion.” 


5 In the beautiful story of the young 
Robber — μῦϑος ov μῦϑος -- which is 
too long to quote: Euseb. H. £. iii. 23 


of Augustine (In Ev. Johann. Tract. 
124, 2) is perhaps the most interesting 
notice of the belief. 

3 These traditions have been collected 
and discussed by Stanley, Sermons and 
Essays on the Apostolic Age, pp. 275 ff. 

4 Tren. iii. 3,4 (on the authority of 
Polycarp. Euseb. H. EZ. iv. 14).... 
᾿Ιωάννης, ὁ τοῦ κυρίου μαϑητής, ἐν TH 
᾿Εφέσῳ πορευϑεὶς λούσασϑαι καὶ ἰδὼν 
ἔσω Κήρινϑον, ἐξήλατο τοῦ βαλανείου 
μὴ λουσάμενος ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειπών: Φύγω- 


(on the authority of Clement of Alex- 


-andria). 


ὁ Polycrates, ap. Euseb. H. £. iii. 31 
(v.24): ἔτι δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης 6 ἐπὶ τὸ 
στῆδος τοῦ κυρίου ἀναπεσών, ὃς ἐγε- 
νήϑη ἱερεὺς τὸ πέταλον πεφορεκὼς 
καὶ μάρτυς καὶ διδάσκαλος οὗτος ἐν 
᾿Εφέσῳ κεκοίμηται. For the use of τὸ 
πέταλον compare Ex. xxviii. 82; xxix. 
6; Levit. viii. 9(LXX.). Cf. Bingham, 


Antiquities, ii. 9, § 5. 


22% 


958 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOIN. 


ations of the past are not rudely cast aside when they can 
no longer betray. To a Christian among Christians the 
perils and supports of faith appear in new lights; and the 
one famous phrase, “ Little children, love one another,” 
becomes a complete rule of life, when it is based upon the 
perception of Christian brotherhood and received as the 
charge of a father in Christ.'. As compared 
with the other representative Apostles, — St. 
Peter, St. James, and St. Paul, — the position 
of St. John is clearly marked. He belongs rather to the 
history of the Church, if the distinction may be drawn, 
than to the history of the Apostles, and is the living link 
which unites the two great ages. He is the guardian of a 
faith already established, and not, like St. Peter, the 
founder of an outward Church. His antagonist is Cerin- 
thus, the founder of a false representation of Christianity, 
and not Simon Magus, who appears in the position of an 
Antichrist. In his teaching “the faith” is contemplated in 
its fundamental facts, which include all there is of special 
application in the reasoning of St. Paul and in the pro- 
phetic exhortations of St. James. In the language of the 
last chapter of his Gospel, which itself is the meeting-point 
of inspiration and tradition, he “abode till the Lord came,” 
and speaks in the presence of a Catholic Church, which 
rose out of the conflicts which had been guided to the 
noblest issue by the labors of those who preceded him. 
This last chapter of his Gospel is in every 
way a most remarkable testimony to the in- 
fluence of St. John’s person and writings. 
Differences of language,” no less than the abruptness of 


The typical char- 
acter of St. John. 


(b) The authenti- 
city of the Gospel. 


1 Hieron. Comm. in Ep. ad Galat. vi. 
10; Beatus Joannes Evangelista cum 
Ephesi moraretur usque ad ultimam 
senectutem et vix inter discipulorum 
manus ad ecclesiam deponetur, nec 
possit in plura yocem verba contexere, 
nihil aliud per singulas solebat proferre 
collectas, nisi hoc: Filioli, diligite alte- 


rutrum. Tandem discipuli et patres qui 
aderant, tadio affecti quod eadem sem- 
per audirent, dixerunt: Magister quare 
semper hoe loqueris? Qui respondit 
dignam Joanne sententiam: Quia pre- 
ceptum Domini est, et si solum fiat, 
sufficit. 

2 Yet these differences by no means 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 259 


its introduction and its substance, seem to mark it clearly 
as an addition to the original narrative; and 
the universal concurrence of all outward eyi- 
dence no less certainly establishes its claim 
to a place in the canonical book. It is a ratification of the 
Gospel, and yet from the lips of him who wrote it; it al- 
lows time for the circulation of a wide-spread error, and 
yet corrects the error by the authoritative explanation of 
its origin. The testimony, though upon the extreme verge 
of the Apostolic period, yet falls within it, and the Apostle, 
in the consciousness (as it seems) of approaching death, 
confirms again his earlier record, and corrects the mistaken 
notion which might have cast doubt upon the words of the 
Lord. 

The earliest account of the origin of the Gospel is already 
legendary, but the mention which it contains 
of a subsequent revision may rest upon the 
facts which are seen to be indicated by the 
concluding chapter. So much, however, is attested by 
competent authority, that St. John composed his Gospel at 
a later time than the other Evangelists ;* and it can scarcely 
be wrong to refer the book to the last quarter of the first 


The testimony of 
the last chapter. 


The late date of 
the Gospel. 


amount to a proof of difference of 
authorship, but only of a difference of 
date. The last verse of the chapter 
(xxi. 25) is open to more serious objec- 
tions, both internal and external. 

1 This seems to be the object of xxi. 
23. The danger and the correction of 
such an error as is noticed belong 
equally to the period of the extreme 
age of the Apostle. 

2 Can. Murat. (Hist. of N. T. Canon, 
p. 559): Cohortantibus condiscipulis et 
episcopis suis dixit (86. Johannes): 
Conjejunate mihi hodie triduum, et 
quid cuique fuerit revelatum alteru- 
trum nobis enarremus. Eadem nocte 
revelatum Andre ex apostolis, ut re- 
cognoscentibus cunctis, Johannes suo 
nomine cuncta describeret. Jerome 
probably alludes to this tradition when 


he says: Ecclesiastica uarrat historia, 
cum a patribus [Johannes] cogeretur 
ut scriberet, ita facturum se respondisse, 
si indicto jejunio in commune omnes 
Deum precarentur; quo expleto, reve- 
latione saturatus, in illud proemium 
celo veniens eructavit: In principio 
erat Verbum ... (Hieron. Comm. in 
Matt. Proem. p. 5). Cf. Clem. ap. 
Euseb. 4. £. vi. 14. 

8 Clem. Alex. ap. Euseb. ΠΝ. Z. vi.14: 
ὁ KAjuns... παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνέκα- 
Sev πρεσβυτέρων τέϑειται. .. τὸν 
Ἰωάννην ἔσχατον συνιδόντα ὅτι τὰ 
σωματικὰ ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις δεδήλω- 
ται, προτραπέντα ὑπὸ τῶν γνωρίμων, 
πνεύματι δεοφορηϑέντα, πνευματικὸν 
ποιῆσαι εὐαγγέλιον. Treneus (4dv. 
Her. iii. 1, 1; ap. Euseb. H- 2. vy. 8); 
Origen (ap. Euseb. HW. EF. yi. 25). 


260 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


century, and in its present form probably to the last 
decennium of the period, This late date of the writing is 
scarcely of less importance than its peculiarly personal 
character, if we would form a correct estimate of the 
evidence which establishes its early use and authority. It 
passed into circulation when the first oral Gospel was 
widely current in three authoritative forms, and it bore 
upon its surface, no less than in its inmost depths, a stamp 
of individuality, by which it was distinguished from the 
type of recognized tradition. Yet these facts, which must 
at first have limited the use of the book, contribute to the 
clearness of the testimonies by which the use is evinced. 
There is not in this case the same ambiguity as to the 
origin of a striking coincidence of language, as in the early 
parallels with the Synoptic Gospels, since there is no trace 
of any definite tradition similar to the record of St. John. 
The record was itself a creative source, and not a summary; 
the opening of ἃ new field of thought, and not the gathered 
harvest. Clear parallelism of words or ideas with St. 
John’s Gospel in later writers attests the use of the book, 
and cannot be referred to the influence of a common 
original. 

The earliest Christian writers exhibit more or less dis- 
eee tinctly the marks of St. John’s teaching." 
of the Apostolic This is most clearly seen in Ignatius, who, 
wero perhaps, more than any other among the 
sub-apostolic fathers, resembled him in natural character. 
Without an acquaintance with St. John’s writings, it is 
difficult to understand that he could have spoken in some 
cases as he does; but if he were acquainted with them, the 
subtle resemblance which exists is at once intelligible. 
Polyearp, in like manner, obviously refers to a passage in 
the first Epistle of St. John ;° and Papias, according to 


1 Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 81,43, 8 Polye. ad Smyrn. 7: πᾶς yop ὃς ἂν 
100, 225. μὴ ὁμολογῇ ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ 
2 Cf. Ign. ad Smyrn. 8, 5, 12; ad Eph. ἐληλυϑέναι, ἀντίχριστός ἐστι (1 John 


7; ad Magn.1; ad Rom. 7. iv. 3. Cf. Nott. critt. ad loc.). 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 261 


Eusebius, “made use of testimonies” out of 10. The im- 
portance of this evidence is the greater, because it proceeds 
from a quarter in which we might naturally look for the 
most certain information. Polycarp was himself a disciple 
of the Apostle, and Papias conversed with those who had 
been. Nor is it an objection that the coincidences are with 
the Epistle rather than with the Gospel, for the two writings 
are so essentially united that their apostolical authority 
must be decided by one inquiry. 

In the next generation the traces of the use of the 
Gospel, and not only of the general influ- PARP 
ence of St. John’s writings, are indisputable. te Fathers of the 
The “elders,” who are quoted by Ireneus, “?"" “““’* 
interpret a saying of our Lord recorded by St. John,’ and 
the Asiatic source of the reference contributes something 
to its weight. Though the question has been keenly de- 
bated, with some exaggeration on both sides, there can be 
no reasonable doubt that Justin Martyr was acquainted 
with St. John’s Gospel, and referred to it as one of those 
written by apostles, as contrasted with those which were 
written by their followers.2 Quotations from the book 
occur shortly afterwards in the writings of Apollinaris,* 
Tatian,> Athenagoras,° Polycrates,’ and in the Epistle of 
the Church of Vienne.’ The first direct quotation of the 


1 Papias ap. Euseb. 17. L. iii. 24. ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ γέγονεν 

2Tren. y. 86, 2: ὧς οἱ πρεσβύτεροι οὐδὲ ἕν. Cf. capp. 5. 18. 
λέγουσι. «.. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο εἰρηκέναι ὃ Athenagoras, Supplic. pro Christ. 
τὸν Κύριον, ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου 10; GAA cory. ὁ υἱὸς Tov Θεοῦ λόγος 
μονὰς εἶναι πολλάς (John xiv. 2, ἐν rode πατρὸς ev ἰδέᾳ καὶ ἐνεργείᾳ" ,“πρὸς 
οἰκίᾳ τοῦ πατρός μου μοναὶ πολλαί αὐτοῦ γὰρ καὶ δι του παν πα EYE ees 
εἰσιν). The use of the phrase οὔ St, ἑγὺς ὄντος τοῦ πατρὺς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ 
Luke (ii. 49, ἐν τοῖς τοῦ πατρός μου) is (Johni. 3; xvii. 21---29). ᾿ 
worthy of notice ie char αρ. an aR E. εἶτα: ἔτι 

ἃ € καὶ Ἰωάννης ὁ ἐπὶ τὸ στῆδϑος τοῦ 

eee Coron Lie 20. Κυρίου ἀναπεσών . . . (John xiii. 25). 

4 Claud. Apollin. αρ. Routh, Rell. 8 Routh, Ποῖ]. Sacre, i. 800: τὸ ὑπὸ 
Sacre, i. 161: ὁ τὴν ayiay πλευρᾶν τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν εἰρημένον ὅτι ᾿Ελεύ- 
ἐκκεντηδ είς, ΘΕ ΧΕΟΣ oe TIS pene σεται καιρὸς ἐν ᾧ πᾶς ὁ ἀποκτεί- 
αὐτοῦ τὰ δύο πάλιν καϑάρσια, ὕδωρ καὶ yas ὑμᾶς δόξει λατρείαν 
αἷμα, λόγον καὶ πνεῦμα (John χὶχ. 84). προσφέρειν τῷ Θεῷ (John xiy. 

ὅ Tatian, Orat.ad Grec. 19: πάντα 2.). 


262 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 

Gospel by name occurs in Theophilus;* and in the last 
quarter of the second century it was universally received 
as an authentic and unquestioned work of the Apostle. 
As such, it is included in the early Eastern Canon of the 
Peshito, and in the Western Canon of Muratori; and from 
this time all the great fathers of every section of the 
Church argue on the basis of its universal reception and 
Divine authority. 

The reception of the Gospel among heretical teachers 
was scarcely less general than its reception 
in the Catholic Church. Its individuality 
preserved it from the conflict which the 
Synoptic Gospels supported with other versions of the 
same fundamental narrative. There is an apparent allu- 
sion to it in the “great announcement” which was attrib- 
uted to Simon Magus ;? and it is evidently referred to in 
the writings of the early Ophites® and Peratici.t It is still 
more worthy of notice that it is quoted in the Clementine 
Homilies, which are the production of another school.’ 
Basilides, “who lived not long after the times of the 
Apostles,” and Valentinus distinctly refer to it;® and 
Heracleon, the scholar of Valentinus, made it the subject 
of a commentary.” 


The testimony of 
heretical writers. 


1 Theophilus, ad Autol. ii. 22: ὅϑεν δ Clem. Hom. xix. 22: ὅϑεν καὶ ὁ 


διδάσκουσιν ἡμᾶς at ἁγίαι γραφαὶ καὶ 
πάντες οἱ πνευματοφόροι, ἐξ ὧν Ἰωάν- 
yns λέγει: ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν 6 λόγος. : 

2 (Hipp. J adv. Her. vi. 9: οἰκητήριον 
δὲ λέγει εἶναι [ὃ Σίμον] τὸν ἄνϑρω- 
πον τοῦτον Toy ἐξ αἱμάτων γεγενημέ- 
voy... (Jobn i. 18). 

8 [Hipp.] adv. Her. v. 9: περὶ οὗ, 
φησίν, εἴρηκεν 6 Σωτήρ᾽ Ei ἤδεις- 
τίς ἐστιν 6 αἰτῶν, σὺ ἂν ἤτη- 
σας παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔδωκεν ἄν 
σοι πιεῖν ζῶν ὕδωρ ἅἁλλόμενον 
(John iy. 10); and many other passages. 

4 (Hipp.]adv. Her. vy. 12: τοῦτό ἐστι, 
φησί, τὸ εἰρημένον, Οὐ γὰρ ἦλϑεν ὁ 
υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνϑρώπου εἰς τὸν κ σ- 
μον, ἀπολέσαι τὸν κόσμον, GAN 
ἵνα σωδῇ ὃ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ. 


διδάσκαλος ἡμῶν περὶ τοῦ ἐκ yeve- 
THs πηροῦ Kat ἀναβλέψαντος παρ᾽ 
αὐτοῦ ἐξετάζουσι τοῖς μαϑηταῖς, εἰ 
οὗτος ἥμαρτεν ἢ οἱ γονεῖς 
αὐτοῦ ἵνα τυφλὸς γεννηὃ ἢ», 
ἀπεκρίνατο. οὔτε οὗτός τι ἥμαρ- 
τεν οὔτε οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, 
ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα δι’ αὐτοῦ φανερωδῇ 
ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Θεοῦ τῆς ἀγνοίας 
ἰωμένη τὰ ἁμαρτήματα (John ix. 1 ff.) 
Cf. Uhlhorn, Die Homilien w. 8. w. 122 ff. 

6[Hipp.] adv. Her.: τοῦτο, φησὶν 
[ὁ βασιλείδη-ς], ἐστὶ τὸ λεγόμενον ἐν 
τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις" ἣν τὸ Pas τὸ 
ἀληδινὸν ὃ φωτίζει πάντα 
ἄνϑρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν 
κόσμον (John i. 9). 

7 Origen. in Joann. Tom. xii. §§ 10 ff. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 263 


The chain of evidence in support of the authenticity of 

the Gospel is, indeed, complete and contin- Tarts 
δ . This testimony 

uous, as far as it falls under our observation. continuous andcon- 
Not one historical doubt is raised from any το 
quarter, and the lines of evidence converge towards the 
point where the Gospel was written, and from which it was 
delivered to the Churches. On the other side one fact 
only can be brought forward, It is said, on the authority 
of Epiphanius, that the Gospel, as well as the other writings 
of St. John, were attributed to Cerinthus by 
a sect called Alogi! Their name indicates Fon espa > 
the ground on which they proceeded. Their 
objections to the apostolic origin of the book were, as far 
as can be ascertained, purely internal; and it is not difficult 
to trace the course which the objectors may have followed, 
till they reached their final result. Such internal objec- 
tions can always be strengthened by pointing out the 
defects which, from the nature of the case, must necessarily 
exist in the outward proof of the origin of a book in an 
age and in a society almost without literary instinct. But 
the true historic view, which regards the whole growth of 
Christianity within and without, furnishes a convincing 
answer to such skepticism, which is essentially partial. 
The development of later speculation becomes first ex- 
plicable when it is traced out as the result of one definite 
impulse. The general tendency of all casual testimony is 
found to coincide with the conclusion which is assumed on 
all sides without hesitation when Christian literature first 
rose into importance. And a deeper study of the internal 
features of the Gospel will show that what appear to be 
difficulties and divergences from other parts of Scripture, 
belong to the fulness of its personal character, and con- 
tribute equally to the completeness of the teaching which 
it conveys, and to the perfection of that image of the 
Saviour which it presents, in combination with the records 
of the other Evangelists. 


- 


1 Epiph. Her. li. 8. Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 1305 ff. 


264 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


The internal character of St. John’s Gospel offers in fact 
an almost boundless field for inquiry. It pre- 
sents the results of the most consummate art 
as springing from the most perfect simplicity. 
The general effect of its distinct individuality is heightened 
by a careful examination of the various details by which 
the whole impression is produced. In language, substance, 
and plan the narrative differs from the Synoptic Gospels; 
and each of the points thus offered to investigation will 
require some notice. 

The language of St. John presents peculiarities both 
in words and constructions which mutually 
illustrate one another. In both an extreme 
simplicity and an apparent sameness cover a depth of 
meaning, which upon a nearer view is felt to be inexhaust- 
ible. The simplicity springs from the contemplation of 
Christianity in its most fundamental relations; the same- 
ness, from the distinct regard of the subject in each sepa- 
rate light, by which every step in the narrative is, as it 
were, isolated, instead of being merged in one complex 
whole. 

The Introduction to the Gospel furnishes the most com- 
plete illustration of its characteristic vocabu- 
lary. “The Word,” “the Life,” “the Light,” 
«the Darkness,” “ the» Truth,” “the: World;”?4. “Glory. 


2. The internal 
character of the 
Gospel. 


(a) Its language. 


i. The vocabulary. 


1 Τὰ examining the language of St. ᾿Αλλὰ μὴν Kal Thy πρώτην ἐμήνυσε 
John I have derived very considerable τετράδα... . Πατέρα εἰπὼν καὶ Χάριν 
help from the valuable work of Lu- καὶ τὸν Μονογενῆ καὶ ᾿Αλήϑειαν), is 
thardt, Das Johanneische Evangelium. full of interest. 

Niirnberg, 1852. Throughout I have The term the Word (ὁ Adyes), abso- 


compared and corrected my own con- 
clusions by his, with the greatest ad- 
vantage. 

2 The use and meaning of these werds, 
which were applied in very early times 
to strange and mystical schemes (Iren. 
i. 8,5 ff. σαφῶς οὖν δεδήλωκεν ὁ Iwav- 
νὴ» διὰ τῶν λόγων τούτων τά τε ἄλλα 
καὶ τὴν τετράδα τὴν δευτέραν, Λόγον 
καὶ Ζωήν, “AvSpwroy καὶ Ἐκκλησίαν" 


lutely as a title of the Son of God, is 
found only in the Preface to the Gos- 
pel (i. 1; 14), where it occurs four times. 
It occurs in the cognate phrase the 
Word of God in the Apocalypse (Apoc. 
xix. 13); and in a passage in the Epis- 
tle to the Hebrews (iv. 12, 18), the sim- 
ple and derived meanings of the term, 
as the Revelation, and the Person in 
whom the revelation ecntres, are com- 


THE COSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


265 


“Grace,” are terms which at once place the reader beyond 
the scene of a limited, earthly conflict, and raise his thoughts 


bined with the netion of an account to 
be rendered. In the LXX. λόγος is the 
usual representative of 127, and oc- 
curs in those passages in which later 
interpreters have found the traces of 
a fuller revelation of the Divine na- 
tures δ: 77.) ES: Xxx. 6; ΟΥ̓ 209. Isa. 
XXXvili. 4, ete. In the Latin Versions 
of the New Testament, as represented 
by MSS. of every class, λόγος is trans- 
lated by Verbum, which falls very far 
short even of a partial rendering of the 
Greek. There is, however, evidence 
that in the second century serno was 
also current, which is, in some respects, 
a preferable rendering (Tertull. adv. 
Hermog. Xx. etc. and constantly); and 
Tertullian seems to prefer ratio, though 
he implies that that had not been 
adopted in any version (adv. Prax. v. 
Ideoque jam in usu est nostrorum, per 
simplicitatem interpretationis, sermo- 
nem dicere in primordio apud Deum 
Suisse, cum magis rationem competat 
antiquiorem haberi, quia non sermona- 
lis a principio sed rationalis Deus... . 
In de Carne Chr. xviii. he reads verbum 
caro factum est). 

The Life (ἡ (wh) is a term of much 
wider application. It occurs not only 
in the preface of the Evangelist, but 
also in the discourses of our Lord, and 
in one phrase full of deep meaning — 
‘to enter into life” (εἰσελϑεῖν eis THY 
ζωήν) —it is found in the Gospels of 
St. Matthew and St. Mark (Matt. xviii. 
Suga kis ΤΠ Mark ix. 49% 45: Cf 
Matt. vii. 14). In the Epistles of St. 
Paul the word is only less important 
than in St. John (Cf, Rom. y. 10; viii. 
10. Col. iii. 4. 2 Tim. i. 1); and it is 
found, though rarely, in the other 
Epistles (Cf. Hebr. vii. 16. Jac. i. 12. 
1 Pet. iii 7. 2 Pet. i. 8). In the writ- 
ings of St. John; Christ is presented as 
the Life under various aspects. At one 
time He proclaims Himself to be “the 
Resurrection and the Life” (ἐγώ εἰμι 7 
ἀνάστασις καὶ ἣ (wh) in the presence 


of material death (John xi. 25), and 
again as “the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life” (ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήδεια 
καὶ ἡ ζωή) in the presence of religious 
doubt (xiy. 6). In this latter sense 
St. John says, ‘‘ The Life was the Light 
of men” (kal 7 (wh ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν av- 
ϑρώπων. i. 4), that Light of Life” (τὸ 
φῶς τῆς wijs), as it is elsewhere called 
(viii. 12), which he shall have who fel- 
lows Christ. ‘‘The Life” (1 John i. 2; 
v. 20) lies beneath all physical and 
spiritual being and action, absolutely 
one, and universally pervading. At 
other times the single gift and source 
of life is contemplated in the separate 
parts or modes in which it is presented. 
“JT am the bread of Life” (ἐγώ εἰμι 6 
ἄρτος τ. ζωῆς. vi. 85, 48); “the words 
(ῥήματα) which I have spoken unto 
you, they are spirit and they are life” 
(vi. 68, οὗ v. 68); “1 will give to him 
that thirsteth of the fountain of the 
water of life” (Apoc. xxi. 6. Cf. xxii. 
1, 17; vii. 19. John iv. 14); “to him 
that overcometh will I give to eat of 
the tree of life’ (τοῦ ξύλου τῆς ζωῆς. 
Apoce. ii. 7. Cf. xxii. 2, 14, 19); ‘ His 
{the Father’s] commandment is life 
eternal” (xii. 50); ‘this is life eternal, 
that they know thee (ἵνα γινώσκωσιν) 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom thou hast sent” (améoTeAas- 
xvii. 3); ‘‘ these things have been writ- 
ten .... that ye may have life in His 
(Christ’s) name” (xx. 31). Elsewhere 
it is regarded as something present in 
the Father (vy. 26), in the Son (v. 26, 
ζωὴν ἔχειν ἐν ἑαυτῷ), and in those 
united in fellowship with Christ (vi. 53, 
54; v. 40; iii. 15, 16, 36), varying in de- 
gree (x. 10, ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσιν καὶ πε- 
ρισσὸν ἔχωσιν), present in one sense (y. 
24), and yet future (xii. 25. Cf. vi. 27; 
iv. 86), personal (1 John y. 12, 16), and 
yet extending to “ the world” (yi. 51). 
[Compare the use of ζωοποιέω ν. 21; 
vi. 63, and in St. Paul, and 1 Pet. iii. 
18.] 


23 


266 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 

to the unseen and the eternal. The conflict of good and 
evil is presented in an image which conveys in final distinct- 
ness the idea of absolute antagonism. The Incarnation it- 
self is regarded as the great climax of the revelations of 
Him in whom all things “were” and by whom all things 
“became.” Yet the Life and the Light and the Truth, are 
no mere abstractions, but centre in a person. The one pre- 
dominating idea, partial and yet true, passes into the other 
in the consideration of new relations. The Life, which, in 
its fullest sense, is the most noble expression of creative 
power, becomes the Light in regard to men; and the sum 
of that which the Light reveals is the Truth. From stage to 
stage the whole is laid open which was contained implicitly 
in the first prophetic announcement. For nowhere is the 
spiritual depth of St. John’s Gospel more clearly imaged 


The grand notion of “ Life” as the 
divine basis of all being, is limited in 
that of “ Light,’ which is one of the 
forms in which it is presented to men 
(i. 4). “God is light” (1 John i. 5), even 
as Christ is light (i. 4—9; iii. 19; xii. 
46), ‘the light of the world ” (viii. 12), 
during His presence (xii. 35, 86; ix. 5), 
and after His bodily withdrawal (1 
Jobn ii.8), in which the believer abides 
(1 John ii. 10) and walks (1 Johni. 7). 
The opposite to this heavenly light (ef. 
xi. 9, 10), is “the Durkness? (σκοτία 
metaph. only in St. John, σκότος only 
iii. 19. 1 John i. 6), in which others 
walk (viii. 12; xii. 35. 1 John ii. 11) 
and abide (xii. 46) and are (1 John i. 9), 
and which overwhelms them (xii. 35), 
and blinds them (1 John ii. 11), though 
it cannot overwhelm the Light (i. 5). 
[Compare the use of φαίνειν, φανεροῦν, 
φωτίζειν. 

In another aspect the revelation which 
brings life and light, and in one sense 
is life and light, is the Truth. In the 
use of this word St. John, standing in 
marked contrast with the synoptists, 
offers a close parallel with St. Paul. 
Christ Himself is the truth (xiv. 6), 
eyen as the revelation (λόγος) of God 


(xvii. 17); and the Holy Spirit as the 
Guide of the future Church, is essen- 
tially the Spirit of truth” (xiv. 17; 
xv. 26; xvi. 19. 1 Jolin iv. 6), and “the 
Spirit is the Truth” (1 John y. 6). But 
while the Truth is expressed in lan- 
guage (viii. 40), it extends to action (iii. 
21. 1John i. 6, ποιεῖν τὴν GANSELav), 
and brings with it freedom (viii. 82) 
and holiness (xvii. 17, 19). [Compare 
the use of ἀληϑής, ἀληδινός,] 

The sphere to which this all-embrac- 
ing revelation is addressed is ‘the 
world” (ὃ κόσμος), a word which, 
while it occurs in this application in 
St. Matthew (xiii. 88; xxvi. 13), and 
St. Mark (xvi. 15), and more frequently 
in St. Paul, is yet so common in its 
ethical sense in St. John as to be highly 
characteristic of his writings. Christ 
‘takes the sin of the world” (i. 29. 1 
John ii. 2), “gives life to the world” 
(vi. 35. Cf. v. 51. 1 John iy. 9), came 
““to save the world” (xii. 47; iii. 17. 
1 John iv. 14. Cf. iv. 42), is “the light 
of the world” (viii. 12; ix. 5); and 
conversely, ‘the world could not re- 
ceive’? Him (xiv. 17), but hated Him 
(xv. 18). 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 267 


than in the one term which is most commonly and most 
rightly associated with it. When St. John surveys in his 
own person, in a few sentences, the great facts of the In- 
carnation in their connection with all the past and all the 
future, and as they reach beyond the very bounds of time, 
he speaks of the Lord under a title (λόγος) which is only 
faintly and partially imaged by “the Word.” The render- 
ing, even on the one side which it approaches, limits and 
confines that which in the original is wide and discursive. 
As far as the term Logos expresses a revelation, it is not 
an isolated utterance, but a connected story, a whole and 
not a part, perfect in itself, and including the notions of 
design and completion. But the meaning of Logos is only 
half-embraced by the most full recognition of the idea of a 
given revelation, conveyed by one who is at once the Mes- 
senger and the Message, speaking from the beginning in 
the hearts of men, of whom He was the Life and Light, 
and by the mouth of those who were His prophets: it in- 
cludes also that yet higher idea, which we cannot conceive 
except by the help of the Janguage which declares it, accord- 
ing to which the revelation is, in human language, as 
thought, and the Revealer as reason, in relation to the 
Deity. In this sense the title lifts us beyond the clouds of 
earth and time, and shows that that which has been real- 
ized among men in the slow progress of the world’s history, 
was, towards God, in the depths of the Divine Being before 
creation. These vast truths, which are included in the one 
term by which St. John describes the Lord, had been dimly 
seen, from one side or the other, by many who had studied 
the records of the Old Testament. Now they brought for- 
ward the notion of a divine Reason, in which the typical 
“ideas” of the world were supposed to reside: now of a 
divine Word, by which God held converse with created 
beings; but at this point the boldest paused.! No one had 
dared to form such a sentence as that which, with almost 
awful simplicity, declares the central fact of Redemption, 


1 Cf. pp. 161—168. 


— 268 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


in connection with time and eternity, with action and with 
being: “ The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” 
and it may well seem that the light of a divine presence 
still ever burns in that heavenly message, thus written for 
us, as clearly as it burnt of old on the breastplate of priest, 
or among the company of the first disciples. If any one 
utterance can bear the clear stamp of God’s signature, 
surely that does which announces the fulfilment of the 
hopes of a whole world with the boldness of simple affir- 
mation, and in language which elevates the soul which 


embraces 10.} 


If we pass from the vocabulary of St. John to the form 
of his sentences, what has been said of the 


li. The composi- 
tion. 
Simplicity. 


former still holds good in new relations. 
The characteristics which mark the elements 
of his language, mark also his style of composition. 


There 


is the same simplicity and depth in the formation of his 


1In addition to the characteristic 
words of St. John, which have been 
already noticed (p. 241, n. 2), there are 
many others which illustrate in a re- 
markable way the spirit of his Gospel. 
Among these may be mentioned: 

Sdvaros (in 1 Ep. and Apoc.), 

μαρτυρία, μαρτυρεῖν (Gosp. Epp. 
Apoc.), 

κρίσις, κρίνειν (Gosp. Apoc.), 

ἔργον, τὰ ἔργα (Gosp.), 

πιστεύω εἰς (Gosp. 1 Epp. πίστις 
only 1 John, y. 4, 7 πίστις not in 
Gosp.), 

ὄνομα (Gosp. Epp. Apoc.), 

γινώσκω (Gosp. Epp. Apoc.), 

σημεῖον (Gosp. Apoc.), 

ἁμαρτία (Gosp. 1. Ep.), 

σάρξ (Gosp.), 

ἀγαπῶν, ἀγάπη (Gosp. Epp.), 

δεᾶσϑαι, Sewpety (Gosp. 1 Ep.), 

ἐρωτῶν (Gosp. Epp.), 

ὁ πατήρ (Gosp. Epp. Apoc.)\ 

πρόβατα, Texvia(Gosp. 1 Ep.), 

παροιμία (Gosp. also 2 Pet. ii. 22), 

ἀμήν, ἀμήν (Gosp.), 

πιάζειν (Gosp. Apoc.), 


ὄχλος (sing.), in pl. only vii. 12, with 
var. lect. 

τὰ ἴδια (also Acts xxi. 6). 

The amount of words peculiar to St. 
Jobn is very large. In the Gospel I 
have counted sixty-five, and there are 
possibly more. In the main these 
spring out of the peculiar details of 
his narrative: e.g. ἀντλεῖν, ἀποσυνά- 
ywyos, γλωσσόκομον, κλῆμα, σκέλος, 
τίτλος, ὑδρία, ψωμίον. Some are 
characteristic: Δίδυμος, Ἑβραϊστί, 
ἀρνίον, σκηνοῦν. Many words occur 
with remarkable frequeney in St. John, 
as οὖν, iva, μέντοι, ἴδε, οὔπω, πώποτε, 
ἐγώ, ἐμός, and their usage is full of 
meaning. 

The absence of some words is equally 
worthy of notice, as, for instance, δύ- 
ναμις, δυνάμεις, ἐπιτιμᾶν εὐαγγέλιον 
(and derivatives), παραβολή, παραγ- 
γέλλειν, πίστις, σοφία, σοφός. In 
this connection it may be noticed that 
St. John speaks of John the Baptist 
simply as John; the title does not oc- 
cur in the Gospel—a small trait which 
would not haye been preserved by a 
later writer. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 269 
recurrent constructions as in the choice of his familiar 
words; and these qualities bring with them, in each sepa- 
rate sentence, clearness and force. Like the key-words of 
his language, his constructions are almost without excep- 
tion most obvious and plain.’ The effect which they 
produce is not gained by any startling or subtle form of 
expression, but only by a calm and impressive emphasis. 
Clauses are rather appended than subordinated. Every 
thing is placed before the reader in a direct 
form, even in the record of the words of 
others, when the oblique narration is most natural; “Many 
of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, 
Of atruth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the 
Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee ?”? 
If remarks are added either to bring out more strongly the 
features of the scene, or to connect the history with the 
immediate time, they are added for the most part in abrupt 
parentheses: “Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His 
journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour. 
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water.” ® 

One result of this form of writing is circumstantiality. 
The different details which are included in 
an action are given with individual care. 
Word is added to word, when it might have been thought 
that the new feature was already included in the picture; 
and yet in such sentences as “Jesus cried out in the 
Temple, teaching and saying,” “they questioned Him, and 
said to Him,” and the like, it will be found that there is 
something gained by the distinct expression of each mo- 


Directness. 


Circumstantiality, 


1 A remarkable sign of this is found 
in the singular fact that St. John never 
uses the optative (Credner, Linl. § 96). 
In xiii. 24, the reading καὶ λέγει αὐτῷ 
Εἰπὲ tis ἐστιν is certainly correct. 

In like manner the particle ἄν is only 
found in the construction with the in- 
dicative (iv. 10, etc.), except in the 
connection ὃς ἄν, ὅστις ἄν, ὅσος ἄν. 

2 John yii. 40, 41. Cf. i. 19—27; ix. 


23 


3 ff.; viii. 22; ix. 41; xxi. 20. In John 
iv. 51, the authorities are divided, and 
if ὁ παῖς αὐτοῦ be the right reading, it 
probably stands alone as an example 
of oblique construction (cf. Luthardt, 
p. 87). The common reading in xiii. 
24, πυϑέσϑαι τίς εἴη; isincorrect. Cf. 
supr. n. 1. 

Siv.6. Cf. x. 22; xiii. 80; vi. 10; 
xviii. 40. 


* 


270 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 
ment in the narrative which might otherwise have been 
overlooked. 

Another mode in which this fundamental character of 
St. John’s style shows itself is repetition. 
The subject, or chief word of the whole 
sentence, is constantly repeated, both in the narrative and 
in the recital of our Lord’s discourses. “In the beginning 
was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the 
Word was God.” “Jesus then, when he saw her weeping, 
and the Jews that were with her weeping.” .... “If I 
bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is 
another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the 
witness which he witnesseth of me is true.” ? 

This tendency to emphatic repetition may be seen again 
in the way in which the persons involved in 
the dialogue are brought out into clear an- 
tagonism. Sentence after sentence opens 
with the clauses, “Jesus said,” “the Jews said,” so that the 
characters engaged in the great conflict are never absent 
from the mind of the reader;* and a similar emphasis is 
gained in other sentences by the introduction of a demon- 
strative pronoun, when an important clause has intervened 
between the subject and the verb: “He that seeketh His 
glory that sent him, the same (οὗτος) is true.” ὁ 

It is to be referred to the same instinctive desire to 


Repetition. 


Individuality of 
narrative. 


2i.1; xi. 88; v. 31, 32. Compare i. 
10; v. 46, 47; xv. 4 ff.; xvii. 25. 

3 Ὁ. g. viii. 49 ff.; x. 23 ff It is, how- 
ever, to be remarked that in these cases 
the verb is put first: iv. 7 ff. ete. 


11. 25; vii. 28. Compare i. 15, 32; 
viii. 12; xii. 44, etc. A very simple 
and common example of this charac- 
teristic occurs in the constant use of 
ἀπεκρίϑη καὶ εἶπεν for the usual ao- 
κριϑεὶς εἶπεν or ἀπεκρίϑη λέγων of 


the other Evangelists. The two ideas 4 vii. 18. Compare vi. 46; xv. 5. 


are codrdinated, and not subordinated. 
The phrase occurs, if I have noticed 
rightly, thirty-three times in St. John, 
and elsewhere only Mark yii. 28; Luke 
xiii. 15; xvii. 20. 

It is a consequence of the same 
principle that we find such phrases as 
ἐγὼ... ἐξῆλϑον καὶ ἥκω οὐδὲ 
ἐς .ἐλήλυϑ᾽ α (viii. 42). 


2 John 9; i. 81; iii. 82; v. 88; x. 25 
(οὗτοΞ). 1.18, 88; γ- 11) Sis) ὑπ δύ) 
x.1; xii. 48; xiv. 21, 26; xv. 26 (ἐκεῖς- 
vos). The former pronoun occurs in 
the other Gospels in this kind of con- 
struction several times (Matt. xiii. 20 
ff.; Mark vi. 16; Luke ix. 48): the lat- 
ter, as far as I know, only twice: Mark 
vii. 15, 20. 


TIE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. Vet 


realize the full personality of the action, so to speak, that 
St. John frequently uses the participle and 
substantive verb for the more natural finite 
verb. The distinction between the two 
forms of expression is capable only of a rude representation 
in English; yet even so, it is possible to appreciate the 
difference between the phrases “I bear witness,” and “1 
am one who bears witness,” and to feel that the idea of the 
action predominates in the one, and that of the person in the 
other.! Elsewhere the force of the clause is heightened, in 
a way which the English idiom cannot express, by the 
position of the verb at the beginning of the sentence. The 
central idea of the whole is given first, and the remainder 
of the sentence is made dependent upon it 

All these peculiarities converge to the same point. The 
simplicity, the directness, the particularity, 
the emphasis of St. John’s style, give his 
writings a marvellous power, which is not, 
perhaps, felt at first. Yet his words seem to hang about 
the reader till he is forced to remember them. Each great 
truth sounds like the burden of a strain, ever falling upon 
the ear with a calm persistency which secures attention. 
And apart from forms of expression with which all are 
early familiarized, there is no book in the Bible which has 
furnished so many figures of the Person and Work of 
Christ which have passed into the common use of Chris- 
tians, as the Gospel of St. John. “I am the bread of life ;” 
“Tam the light of the world;” “Iam the good shepherd ;” 
“TI am the vine;” are words which have guided the 
thoughts of believers from the first ages.’ 


Personality of 
action. 


The combined 67. 
Jects of these char- 
acteristics, 


Ly. 39; viii. 18; xi..1; xvii. 19, 23. 
If i. 9, ἦν τὸ φῶς---ἐρχόμενον, is an in- 
stance of this construction, the words 
must be explained not of one act, but 
of a series; not of the Incarnation 
only, but of a continuous manfestation. 
This construction occurs also in the 
other Gospels. Cf. Winer, Gramm. 
§ 45, 5. 


2 EF. g. iv. 28, 80, 52, 53; vi. 711; 
vii. 45 f. This is specially the case in 
the phrases λέγει αὐτῷ, ἀπεκρίϑη αὐτῷ 
On ΘΕ ΡΣ 210: πὶ 5. 

8 νὶ. 48, ἐγώ εἰμι ὃ ἄρτος τ. 


ζωῆς. vi. 51, ἐγώ εἰμι ἄρτος ὃ 
ζῶν. viii. 12, ἐγώ εἶμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ 
κόσμου. x. 7, ἐγώ εἶμι ἣ ϑύρα τῶν 


προβάτων. y.9, ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ϑύρα. x. 


272 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JONN. 
ae 

The combination of the sentences in St. John offers a 
complete analogy to the construction of 
them. What has been said of the words and 
the constituent members of his sentences, 
apples equally to entire paragraphs. There is the same 
circumstantiality in the picture, as a whole, as in the 
details. Words, clauses, paragraphs, follow one another, in 
what may be taken for needless repetition, till the mind 
grows sensible of the varied light in which the object is 
placed, and grasps the complete image. The final effect of 
the entire narrative is inartificial, and yet intense and 
powerful. The multiplication of simple elements issues in 
aresult of acknowledged grandeur; and the mode in which 
the result is produced leads the mind to dwell upon it with 
patient study. Sentences are added one to another rather 
than connected. Only the simplest conjunctions? are used, 
even when the dependence of the successive clauses is 
subtle and hidden. Equally often the narrative or dis- 
course is continued without the help of any conjunctions, 
especially when the deepest feeling is roused, and the full 
heart embraces the whole scene, without distinguishing the 
subordination or sequence of the details; “And He said, 
Where have ye laid him? They say to Him, Come and 
see. Jesus wept.”? Statement follows statement, and the 
reader is left to work out for himself the law by which 
they are bound together. It is as if St. John felt that each 
truth involves all truth; and that ¢he truth was to be 
described, as he had seen it, by the portraiture of its 


The combination 
of sentences. 
Simplicity. 


11, 14, ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὃ καλός. xi. 
25, ἐγώ εἰμι ἣ ἀνάστασις καὶ ἣ ζωή. 
xiv. 6, ἐγώ εἰμι ἣ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήϑεια 
καὶ ἣ ζωή. χν. 1, ὅ, ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ἄμπε- 
λος. 

The frequency of the pronoun ἐγώ in 
St. John’s Gospel, compared with the 
Synoptists, points to the fulness of this 
personal revelation of our Lord. The 
simple phrase ἐγώ εἶμι occurs in all 
the Gospels. 


1The most common are Καί and δέ, 
though both occur much less frequently 
in St. John than in the other Evangel- 
ists. The conjunction τέ, which is 
rare in the Gospels, occurs only ii. 15 
(τέ -- kal); iy. 42; vi. 18. In the two 
latter cases there is a various reading, 
δέ, supported by important evidence. 


2xi. 34, 35. Cf. i. 8, 6, 8 δ᾿; 11. 17; 
iv. 7, 10 ff ; xv. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 273 
several aspects, and not as it were discovered or displayed 
by any process of argument. For him knowledge was 
sight." 

But while the particles in St. John occupy generally a 
very subordinate place, two which express a 
designed object (iva) and a natural result 
(οὖν), however much these ideas may be 
hidden from the ordinary sight, are singularly frequent and 
important. The view which they open of the continuous 
working of a divine Providence, and of the sequence of 
human actions, is exactly that in which St. John may be 
supposed to have specially dwelt, and which he brings out 
with the greatest distinctness. “The Jews said unto him, 
It is not lawfal for us to put any man to death; that (wa) 
the saying of Jesus may be fulfilled, which he spake signi- 
fying what death he should die”? “ When he had heard, 
therefore (οὖν), that he was sick, he abode two days still in 
the same place where he was.” ὃ 


Characteristic 
particles, 


11 John i. 1. The frequency of the 
words ϑεωροῦν, ϑεᾶσϑαι, ἑωρακέναι, 
which has been already noticed, is an 
indication of this characteristic of St. 
John. It is worthy of notice that in 
the Gospel and first Epistle he uses only 
the perfect of ὁρᾶν (ἑώρακα), which 
occurs twenty-six times. There can be 
no doubt that ἐθεώρουν is the true 
reading in yi. 2. 

2 xviii. 32. This form of expression, 
ἵνα wAnpwd7, is even more frequent in 
St. John than in St. Matthew, and it is 
found not only in the narrative of the 
Evangelist (xii. 33; xviii. 9, 32; xix. 
24, 36), but also in the discourses of our 
Lord (xiii. 18; xv. 25; xvii. 12). The 
elliptical phrase, ἄλλ᾽ ἵνα, which oc- 
curs Mark xiy. 49, is also worthy of 
particular notice: i.8; ix. 3; (xi. 52;) 
xii. 18; xiv. 81; xv. 25. 1 John ii. 19. 
Other examples of the use of ἵνα are 
interesting. In many cases it is used 
where in classical Greek a combina- 
tion of the article with the infinitive 
would be the natural construction: iy. 


34, ἐμὸν βρῶμά ἐστιν ἵνα ποιήσω τὸ 
Sed. vi. 29; (40;) xii. 28, ἐλήλυϑεν 7 
ὥρα ἵνα δοξασδῇ. xiii. 1; xv. 8; xvi. 
80; xvii. 8) 1 John i. 9 it: 27; iv. 17. 
Cf. xiii. 2, 84; xv. 12, 13, 17. 1 John 
iii. 11, 23; v. 3. At other times it takes 
the place of a simple infinitive: xvii. 24, 
SéAw itva.... Gow; iv. 47; xvii. 15; 
Kix. ol, 88; xi. 50; xvi. 7. 1 John iii. 
1; v.20. In both these cases the idea 
of purpose and design seems to have 
led to the change of expression, and 
this notion is very apparent in some 
simpler examples: xvi. 2, ἔρχεται Spa 
Wa was.... δόξης x.17. Cf. iii. 17; 
Xii. 47; v. 7. 1 John v. 16. 

3 Examples of the various character- 
istic uses of οὖν in St. John will be 
found in the following passages: ii. 
22; iii. 25, 29; iv. 1, 6, 46; vi. 5; vii. 25, 
28 ff. ; viii. 12, 21, ff., 31, 38; x.7; xii. 1, 
8,9, 17, 21; xi. 31 ff ete. The word is 
almost confined to narrative, and oc- 
curs very rarely in the discourses. The 
sequence which it marks is one of fact 
and not of theught. In the Epistles 


274 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 
Another form of connection is equally characteristic of 
St. John, and equally instructive. Successive 
sentences, no less than the parts of a single 
sentence, are combined by the recurrence of 
acommon word. The repetition of the key-words of the 
former sentence in that which follows, unites the new 
statement with that which preceded, and yet invests it, at 
the same time, with an individual worth. Sometimes the 
subject is repeated: “I am the good shepherd. The good 
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”* Sometimes 
what appears a subordinate word is transferred to the first 
place: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay 
down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends.”? .... 
Sometimes a clause is repeated which gives the theme 
of the passage: “I am the true vine;....I1 am 
the vine: ye are the branches;”®.... and again, one 
which repeats its closing cadence:* “The world hated 
them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not 
of the world... .. They are not of the world, as 1 am 
not of the world... .. Sanctify them in the truth .... 
that they may be sanctified in the truth.” ° 

This repetition is connected with another peculiarity of 
St. John’s style, which is observable both in 
the simple sentences and in the connected 
record —the spirit of parallelism —the informing power 


Connection by a 
key-word. 


Parallelism. 


course recorded. 


it occurs only 38John 8. In 1 John ii. 
24; iv. 19, it is wrongly inserted in 
some copies. 

1x.11. In referring here and else- 
where to our Lord’s discourses as re- 
corded by St. John for illustrations of St. 
John’s style, I may repeat (to avoid mis- 
construction) what has been said before 
of the relation of the Evangelist to the 
words which he records. Nothing can 
be further from my wish than to question 
the Divine authority of the Evangelic 
records of the Lord’s teaching. But 
few can suppose that the Evangelists 
liave preserved generally either the 
exact or the entire words of the dis- 


St. John in particu- 
lar, from the individual character of 
his Gospel, appears to present exactly 
so much of each discourse as his natu- 
ral peculiarities of conception and lan- 
guage fitted him to preserve, fulfilling 
in this way his providential function 
in the instruction of the Church. The 
record is absolutely truc, and yet not 
complete. 

2 xy. 138, 14. 

3 xv. 1,5. 

4 xvii. 14—19. 

5 This remarkable characteristic finds 
a place even in the history; xviii. 18, 
25. 


” 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. OTD 


of Hebrew poetry — which runs through it. It would not 
be possible to find a more perfect example of parallelism 
than the blessing of the Lord: “Peace I leave unto you; 
my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I 
unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it 
be afraid.”! .... But such instances are naturally very 
rare, as they are essentially poetical, though simpler forms 
both of direct? and antithetic® parallelism occur throughout 
the book. That parallelism, however, which is most 
characteristic of St. John, is a progressive or constructive 
parallelism,‘ or rather a symmetrical progression. The 
subject is stated and pursued to a definite result; it is then 
stated again, with the addition of the new conclusion, and 
carried to another limit. In this way the truth is pre- 
sented, as it were, in a series of concentric circles, ever 
widening; each one in succession includes all that have 
gone before, and is in part determined by them.’ 

This characteristic parallelism in thought and language, 
which is found in the narrative and dis- 
courses of St. John, leads the way to the of τς eae 
truest appreciation of the entire Gospel. It 7 govt ™ 
is, in fact, the divine Hebrew Epic. Every 
part is impressed with the noblest features of Hebrew 
poetry, and the treatment of the subject satisfies the con- 
ditions of variety, progress, and completeness, which, when 
combined with the essential nature of the subject itself, 
make up the notion of a true Epic. The history is not only 
of national, but of universal interest. The development of 
faith and unbelief in the course of the Saviow’s life, up to 
the last agony of the Passion and the last charge of the 


1 xiv. 27. 18, 25. ἣν δὲ [Πέτρος] ἐστὼς καὶ Sep- 
2.2. σ. viii. 28. μαινόμενος --- or as the theme: 6. 4. Χ. 
8 Ε΄ g. vii. 6; viii. 14, 85, 88; xvi. 16, 7, 9, ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ϑύρα; x. 11, 14, ἐγώ 
28. εἶμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός. Cf. xvii. 14-α 


4 One simple forminwhichthisshows 16. 
itself is the repetition ofa clause either 5 The discourses in chaps. x. xvii. 
as the burden: ὁ. g. vi. 89, 40, 44, ἐγὼ will furnish a sufficient illustration of 
ἀναστήσω ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ; xviii. this method of arrangement. 


276 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


risen Lord, presents a moral picture of unapproachable 
grandeur, The separate incidents subserve to the exhibi- 
tion of the one central idea of “the Word made flesh 
dwelling among men;” and everything is contemplated in 
its truly poetic, that is, in its permanent and typical, 
aspect. Outward magnitude alone is wanting; and if the 
narrative falls short in mere extent, this secondary acci- 
dent cannot neutralize all the other details in which the 
Gospel fulfils the requirements of an Epic. 

But the fact that the Gospel is in the highest sense a 
Se ah ripocm, is not to be so interpreted as to bring 
in virtue of its’ Into a prominent light the notion of art or 
20 composition. The Gospel is a poem, because 
it is the simple utterance of a mind which received into 
itself most deeply, and reproduced most simply, absolute 
truth. It is an Epic, because it is the divine reflection of 
the Life of the Son of God, not taken in a special aspect, 
but as the Word manifested to men. This circumstance 
alone distinguishes it from the other Gospels, which are 
memoirs rather than poems, because they present the Life 
of Christ under limited relations, and not chiefly or uni- 
formly in its relation to the Infinite. And if that be a true 
definition of poetry which describes it as the power of 
giving “Infinity” to things, that is no less truly poetry 
which preserves, in a peculiar sense, the idea of its “In- 
finity ” in the record of the Divine Life. 

This view of St. John’s Gospel will be of considerable 

Ae eee help in understanding its plan ; for while it 
object of the Gos- is the most natural outpouring of a soul full 
oa of the life of Christ,’ the idea which was 
foremost in the Apostle’s mind regulates the order of his 
narrative. The idea clothes itself in facts; and the sym- 
metry, which elsewhere is the effect of purpose, is here the 
result, as it were, of an inner law. The subject which is 
announced in the opening verses is realized, step by step, 
in the course of the narrative. The Word “came to His 


1E. g. xx. 30. Cf. xxi. 25. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. Oe 


own,” and they “ received Him not ;” but others “received 
Him,” and thereby became “sons of God.” This is the 
theme, which requires for its complete treatment, not a true 
record of events or teaching, but a view of the working 
of both on the hearts of men. The ethical element is 
coérdinate with the historical; and the end which the 
Evangelist proposes to himself answers to this double cur- 
rent of his Gospel. He wrote that men might believe the 
fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing 
—by spiritual fellowship — might have life in his name. 

After the Introduction (i, 1—18), which includes within 
a narrow compass an outline of the personal th goal ae 
being of the Word, of His Revelation to men, Hn i SF 
and of His Incarnation, the main body of the 
Gospel falls into two great divisions, the first (i. 19—xii.) 
containing the record of the Life of Christ, the second the 
record of His Passion (xiiii—xx.). The whole is then 
closed by an epilogue, which carries forward the lessons 
of the Gospel to the history of the Church (xxi.). The 
division between the two great sections is marked by a 
two-fold pause. The Evangelist sums up the faithlessness 
of the Jews, and connects their final rejection of Messiah 
with the declarations of prophecy; and then records the 
words in which the Lord declared His relation to the 
Father and the world, foreshadowing the judgment which 
should follow on the rejection of His message? 

The first section may be generally described as the mani- 
festation of Christ to men. Throughout the _ 
whole of it, and nowhere afterwards, Christ i a gee 
is described as the Light. Under thisimage τ΄ 
He is first presented. by St. John in the Introduction, and 
at the close of the twelfth chapter the Lord Himself, when 


1 xx. 31, ταῦτα δὲ γέγραπται, ἵνα trast to the popular theories of a polem- 
πιστεύητε OTL Ἰησοῦς ἐστὶν 6 Χριστὸς ical object in the Gospel. The Gospel is 
6 vids τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ iva πιστεύοντες indeed truly polemical so far as the Truth 
ζωὴν ἔχητε ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι αὐτοῦ ---- is the only complete answer to all error. 
words which offer an instructive con- =? Xii. 8643; 44—50. 


24 


278 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


He surveys the course of His teaching, repeats it for the 
last time.! A second idea is scarcely less characteristic : 
Christ is not only the Light, but He came to give Life. 
“He that followeth Me,” to use the remarkable words 
which he addressed to the Jews, “shall have the light of 
life.” The manifestation of Christ centres in these truths, 
and is exhibited under two distinct aspects. The first 
conveys the announcement of the Gospel 
(i. 19—vi.) ; the second, the conflict (v.—xii.). 
At first, during a wide range of labor in 
Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, among persons most widely 
separated by position and character, the revelation is made 
without exciting any direct antagonism. The elements of 
the future conflict are present, but visible only to the eye 
of Him who “knew what was in man.”® The Gospel is 
laid before the world, and the reception which it was 
destined to meet is shown in detail in the portraiture of 
typical cases. The testimony of the Baptist and of signs 
(i. 19—ii. 25) is followed by personal revelation (iil—iv.), 
The group of the first disciples, Nathanael, Nicodemus, 
the Samaritan woman, the Galilean nobleman, exhibit 
various forms of faith and unbelief, and behind these indi- 
vidual characters glimpses of the popular feeling are given, 
which serve as a preparation for the next 
stage of the history. In this, the conflict 
between Christ and “the Jews” grows more and more 
hopeless, till the “chief Priests and Pharisees” finally de- 
termine to put Him to death. The desire “to kill Him” is 
marked at the opening of the period, and traced out on 
several successive occasions, till the feeling of the people 
was ratified by the deliberate judgment of the Sanhedrin.‘ 
In the mean time the same course of events which aroused 


The Announce- 
ment. 


The Conflict. 


1The image occurs, i. 4—9; iii, 19; 81]. 25, ἐν τῷ AvSparrw. 
vili. 12; ix. 5; xii. 85, 46. 

2 The phrases ἔχειν ζωήν, etc. occur 4 v.18, ἐζήτουν ἀποκτεῖναι. vii. 1— 
thirty times in this section and only 25; viii. 87—40; xi. 53, συνεβουλεύ- 
six times in the remainder of the Gos- σαντο ἵνα ἀποκτείνωσιν αὐτόν. Cf. 
pel. viii. 59; x. 81; xi. 8. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JONN. 279 


the animosity of the Jews tried the spirit of the disciples. 
There is a conflict within as well as without; and they 
who had welcomed the first proclamation of the Gospel 
advance or fall back in faith as Christ revealed more fully 
His Person and Work.! This revelation proceeds in a 
three-fold order. In the first section, Christ is presented 
as the support of action and life (v., vi.) ; in the second, in 
amore special sense, as the Light (vii.—x.) ; in the third, 
as the giver of life in death (xi., xii.). Each of these ideas 
is illustrated by miraculous working; and the miracle both 
points the lesson, and serves as the centre and starting- 
point of the discourses which are grouped about it. Now, 
Christ gives strength to the impotent man, feeds the multi- 
tude in the wilderness, triumphs over the power of nature 
(v., vi.); now He gives sight to the man born blind 
(ix.); now he calls Lazarus from the grave (xi.). Each 
division is bound to that which precedes by the recollection 
of earlier conflicts ;? and the whole finds its consummation 
in the twelfth chapter, which presents, in the most striking 
contrasts, the fruits of faith and unbelief in act (xii. 1—22) 
and sign (28—30) and word (4450). Then, at the close 
of Christ’s open ministry, Greeks come to claim admittance 
to Him, of whom the Pharisees said in anger, “ Behold, the 
world is gone after Him” (xii. 19—22); and who said 
Himself, speaking of His death, “If I be lifted up from the 
earth, I will draw all men unto me” (xii. 32). 

The second great division of the Gospel (xill.—xx.) 
differs from the first, both in the unity of οἱ ae ayia 
scene and the briefness of the period over Chris's manyesta- 
which it extends, and in the general charac- sie ὙΠ 
ter of its contents. The first describes the manifestation 
of Christ to men; the second presents the varied issues of 
that manifestation. In regard both of its substance and of 
its style it falls into two parts, of which the first (xill.— 


1 The different working of the Lord’s 69; vii. 12, 43; ix. 16; x. 19. 
words upon His hearers is constantly 2 vii. 19 ff. compared with νυ. 16 ff.; 
brought out by the Evangelist, vi. 60— xi. 8, compared with x. 89. 


280 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


xvii.) contains the record of the Saviour’s love as seen in 
His unrestrained intercourse with His disciples in the im- 
mediate prospect of His death; while the second exhibits 
the narrative of the Passion, as the crowning point of faith 
on one side and unbelief on the other, of humiliation and 
victory, of rejection and confession. A Church is founded 
on the cross; ἃ ministry is commissioned in the chamber 
where the Apostles were gathered together in “fear of the 
Jews.” ?} 
The one great subject of the Lord’s last discourses is 
the “new commandment,” the love of Chris- 
ova’ “veution °F tians springing out of His love and His 
Father’s love for them” The point of de- 
parture is a symbolic act, which places in the clearest light 
the ministry of love; then, after the dismissal of the traitor 
(xiii. 31), the Christian law is proclaimed, with the warning 
against St. Peter’s hasty assurance (xii. 34—88). First, 
love is contemplated as it works in the absence of the Lord 
(xiv.), then as it springs from vital union with Him, the 
only source of love (xy.), then as it is fulfilled in the 
strength of the promised Spirit (xvi). And last of all, the 
priestly prayer of Christ (xvii.) is itself at once the fullest 
outpouring of love, and the surest pledge of the support of 
love among Christians. After the record of 
the Passion, in which the glorified human 
nature of the risen Saviour is specially brought out, follows, 
as a last. appendix, the promise and _ the 
charge for the future. A last miracle con- 
veys the lesson of encouragement to those who toil long: 
a last commission distinguishes the work which Christ’s 
servants have still to do for Him.’ 
Even in this rapid outline it is impossible to overlook 
the unity of purpose and plan which runs through St. 


The Passion. 


The Epilogue. 


1 Cf. xix. 84. 1 John νυ. 6,8—xx.19. xvii.) and only thirteen times besides 
in the remainder of the Gospel. 

2 The words ἀγαπᾶν and ἀγάπη occur 8 The following sketch of the con- 

thirty times in these chapters (xiii— struction of St. John’s Gospel may be 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 981 


John’s Gospel. It is not, as the other Gospels, an individ- 
ual view of a common subject, but the sub- 

=e : (c) The substance 
stance is itself peculiar. It is not only per- ee ane 
sonal in its conception and working out, but it." 
deals with the history of the Lord personally. It lays open 


of use in completing some of the gaps and guiding the way to minuter in- 
in the summary which has been giyen, quiry. 


THE INTRODUCTION. i. 1—18. 
The Word in His own Nature. i. 1—5. 
His Revelation tomen. 6—13. 
The Incarnation. 14—18. 


I. THE MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST TO THE WORLD. i. 19—xii. 


1. THz PROCLAMATION. i. 19—iv. 
(a) The Testimony. i. 19—ii. 12. 
a. The Testimony of John. i. 19—87. 
ὃ. The Testimony of disciples. 1. 88—52. 
6. The Testimony of signs (The water made wine). 11. 1—12. 
(Ὁ) The Work. ii. 18—iv. 54. 
a. With Jews. ii. 13—iii. 
The people (ii. 13—25). 
Representative men (iii). 
Nicodemus, the teacher of the law (1—21). 
John the Baptist, the last prophet (22—36). 
ὃ. With Samaritans. iv. 1—42. 
The woman (iv. 5—380). 
The people (iv. 839—42). 
ec. With Galileans. iv. 43—54. 
The people (iv. 43—45). 
The nobleman (iv. 46—54). (Nobleman’s son healed). 
2. THE CONFLICT. v.—xii. 
(a) The Prelude. yv.—vi. 
Christ the support of action and life. 
(The impotent man healed.) 
(The feeding of the multitudes.) 
(The walking on the sea.) 
(Ὁ) The Contrast. vii.—x. 
Christ the source of truth, light, guidance. 
(The man blind from his birth healed.) 
(c) The Separation. xi.—xii 
Christ the giver of lifeto the dead. xi. 
(Lazarus raised.) 
The judgment of men (xii. 1—29); of the Evangelist (xii. 
81 --41); of Jesus (xii. 44—50). 
II. THE ISSUES OF CHRIST’S MANIFESTATION. xiii.—xx. 
1. THE CONSOLATION. Xiii.—xvii. 
(a) Types. xiii. 
The true pattern. xiii. 1—17. 
The traitor. 18—30. 


24* 


282 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


to us the thoughts which lie beneath actions, and traces 
the gradual revelation of character. But while it is thus, 
in some sense, more complete than the other Gospels, in so 
far as it contains the complete spiritual portraiture of the 
Lord, which is the key to all His outward life, yet in fact 
it is as incoiupiete as they are. It isa poem and not a 
life; the exhibition of the most divine truth of which the 
world has been witness, and not the narrative of events 
which externally considered were infinite. The Old Tes- 


The charge. xiii. 31—35. 
The unstable. 386—388. 
(Ὁ) Love to Christ in absence. xiv. 
The union of Christ with the Father. xiv. 1—11. 
This the source of the Christian’s strength. 12—81. 
(c) Love to Christ the spring of love. xv. 
The mutual love of Christians. xy. 1—17. 
The hatred of the world. 18—27. 
(4) The Promise. xvi. 
The Comforter. xvi. 1—15. 
The Return. 16—24. 
The Interval. 25—33. 
(e) The Prayer. xvii. 
For Christ himself. xvii. 1—5. 
For the apostles. 6—19. 
For all believers. 20—26. 
2. THE VICToRY. xviii.—xx. 
(a) The betrayal. xviii. 1—18, 25—27. 
Judas. xviii. 1—14. 
St. Peter. 15—18, 25—27. 
(Ὁ) The Judgment. xviii. 19—xix. 16. 
The Jews. xviii. 19—24. 
Pilate. xviii. 283—xix. 16. 
(c) The End. xix. 17—42. 
The elevation on the cross. xix. 17—27. 
The death of Jesus. 28—387. 
The burial. 88—42. 
(d) The New Life. xx. 1—29. 
The revelation. xx. 1—18. 
The commission. 19—23. 
The abiding blessing. 24—29. 
Conclusion. 380—81. 


THE EPILOGUE. xxi. 
The sign of the Future. xxi. 1—14 
(The Miraculous draught of Fishes.) 
The varied call of the disciples. 15—24. 
Conclusion. 25. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 283 


tament prophecies,' the miracles,’ the discourses which it 
notices are in one aspect confined in range, and yet they 
open out a way for every thought, and point to the Incar- 
nation as the solution of every doubt. The materials are 
rather pregnant with varied instruction than copious, 


1 The quotations from the Old Testa- changed from the original text; some 
ment which occur in St. John arechar- are deductions or adaptations based on 
acteristic of his general manner. Some the inner meaning of the prophetic 
are verbal citations; some are slightly words. 


I. VERBAL QUOTATIONS. 
John x. 34 = Ps. Ixxxi. 6(LXX. ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὑμῶν = Hebr.) 
[— xii. 13] = Ps. exvii. 25, 26 (LXX. σῶσον δέ for Ὥσαννα). 
— xii. 88 = Is. liii. 1 (LXX.— Hebr. om. Κύριε). ς, 
— xix. 24 = Ps. xxi. 19 (LXX. = Hebr.) 
— xiii. 18 = Ps. xli. 9 (Hebr. not LXX.) 
— xix. 37 = Zech. xii. 10 (Hebr. not LXX.) 


II. VARIED QUOTATIONS. 
1. CHANGES OF EXPRESSION. 

John i. 23 = Is. xl. ὃ (evS’vaTe for ἑτοιμάσατε --- edSelas 
ποιεῖτε in LXX. and Hebr.). 

— xii. 14,15 = Zech. ix.9(uy φοβοῦ — καϑήμ. ἐπὶ πῶλον ὄνου 
for χαῖρε σφόδρα --- ἐπιβεβ. ἐπὶ ὑπο- 
ζύγιον in LXX. and Hebr.), 

— xii. 39—41 = Is. νἱ. 9, 10(τετύφλωκεν --- πεπώρωκεν. Sense of 
Hebr. Varies from LXX.). 

2. CHANGES OF Form. 


John ii.17 -- Ps. Ixviii. 10 (καταφάγεται for κατέφαγεν). 
— vi. 81 ff. = Ex. xvi. 4, 15; Ps. Ixxvii. 24. 
— vi45 -- 15. liv. 13 (add. καὶ ἔσονται). 
—viii.17 = Deut. xix. 15. 
—xyv.25 = Ps. xxxiy. 19 (direct (as Hebr.) from participial 
form). 


III. ADAPTATIONS. 
John vii. 88. Cf. Is. xii. 8; xliv. 3, ete. 
[— xii. 34. Cf. Ps. Ixxxviii. 36]. 
— xix. 36. Cf. Ex. xii. 46. Ps. xxxiii. 91. 
Χ Χο Oe Ott Rau πὴ ν. 10s 
From the form of these quotations it acles recorded by St. John occupy in 
would appear that St. John was famil- his narrative has been already marked. 
iar both with the Hebrew text and with Taken by themselves, they present a 
the LXX. whole pregnant with instruction. 
2 The general position which the mir- 
I. THE MIRACLES OF OUR SAVIOUR DURING HIS MINISTRY. 
1. SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURE— ABSOLUTELY. 
The water made wine (ii. 1—11). 


A type of the independence (v. 4) and transmuting power of 
the spiritual life. 


284 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


exhaustive in their application rather than in their form; 
but the more the student pauses upon what seem abrupt 
transitions, fragmentary utterances, simple repetitions, the 
more he will advance to a certain perception of the abso- 
lute unity by which the whole Gospel is bound together, 
and of the infinite fulness of the revelation which it 
contains in the record of “the Word made flesh.” 

These reflections, which affect the contents of the Gospel 
as well as its style and form, lead to the 
second great point of our inquiry, — the rela- 
tion in which the Gospel of St. John stands to 
the Synoptic narratives. The general features of difference 
between them have been already noticed ;! but it remains 
to examine somewhat more in detail the special points of 
variation and coincidence, which stamp them with the 
marks of a real independence and of an underlying unity. 


II. The relation ἡ 
of St. John to the 
Synoptic Gospels, 


2. SOVEREIGNTY OVER NATURE— RELATIVELY TO MAN. 
(a) Disease. 
a. The ruler’s son (iv. 46—54). 
Mediative faith: above nature (v. 50). 
ὃ. The man at Bethesda (v. 1—9). 
Personal faith: above ritual (v. 9). 
(b) Disorder. 
a. Natural wants (Gen. iii. 17). 
Feeding the five thousand (vi. 5—59). 
Leading to higher aims (v. 53). 
ὃ. Outward impediments. 
Walking on the sea (vi. 15—21). 
Leading to higher faith (v. 20). 
ec. Personal defects. 
The man born blind (ix. 1—7). 
Leading to higher responsibility (v. 39). 
(c) Death. 
The raising of Lazarus (xi.). 
Christ the source of Life (v. 25). 
II. THE MIRACLE OF THE RISEN SAVIOUR. 
The multitude of fishes (xxi. 1—8). 
The type of the successful work of the Church. 


tion. 


It is not, I believe, fanciful to see a 
significance even in the number of these 
miracles. Seven are included in the 
record of Christ’s ministry, and an 
eighth completes the typical represen- 
tation of Ilis work after the resurrec- 


Seven, according to the early 
belief, was the figure of a completed 
creation: eight, the figure of the resur- 
rection, or new birth (Cf. Aug. Zp. ly. 
29). 

1 Pp. 241, 251, 258 f. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOIIN. 285 


The points of difference between St. John and the 
Synoptists are commonly classed under two 
heads, — differences as to the place and form 
of our Lord’s teaching, and differences as to 
the view which is given of His Person. 

The Synoptists, it is said, describe the public ministry 
of Christ as extending only over one year, 
and closing with a visit to Jerusalem, which 
was at once the first and the last which He made. St. 
John, on the other hand, records a visit to Jerusalem at the 
very commencement of His work, and notices several visits 
afterwards, which were spread over a period (apparently) 
of three years. The Synoptists, again, combine to present 
a picture of Christ’s teaching characterized by simplicity, 
terseness and vigor, illustrated by frequent parables and 
summed up in striking proverbs, while St. John attributes 
to Him long and deep discourses, in which the argument is 
almost hidden by unnatural repetitions, and in which 
practical instruction is lost in the mazes of mystical specu- 
lation. In the former our Lord is described as a great 
moral reformer, laying open the fundamental principles of 
the Law which he came to fulfil, speaking as a man among 
men, though clothed with the dignity of a prophet; in the 
latter, from first to last, He is invested with a divine glory, 
claiming for Himself a relation with the Father which 
aroused to the utmost the anger of His enemies, and 
inspired His followers with hope, even in the prospect of 
bereavement. And yet further, it is urged that the differ- 
ences are not confined to general differences of time and 
manner and character, but extend to important details of 
fact, since the miracles, which are represented by St. John 
as the turning-points of our Lord’s course (as the raising 
of Lazarus) are unnoticed by the Synoptists. 

One answer may be made in common to all these objec- 
tions, and to the last no other is necessary. They proceed 
upon the assumption that the Gospels are complete biogra- 
phies. They would be of great weight if, on other grounds, 


1. Points of ΟἿΣ 
JSerence 


as objections, 


286 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


there were any reason to suppose that the Evangelists 
either told all the facts which they knew, or 
ὡς phectons entertained the idea of writing histories. It 
pleteness of each has, however, been already shown that such 
a view of their purpose is wholly untena- 
ble. The historical framework of their writings subserved 
to a doctrinal development. The form and extent of the 
narrative was determined by outward circumstances. The 
omission of one or other series of events or discourses is 
not equivalent to an exclusion of them, unless it can be 
shown that the two supplementary records are inconsistent. 
All truthful inquiry into the mutual relations of the Gospels 
must be based upon the fullest recognition of the fragmen- 
tariness. The question is not, Whether this fact is left 
unnoticed by one? nor even, Why it is left unnoticed? 
but, Is it actually set aside by some other record? Is it 
irreconcilable, either in occurrence or in conception, with 
what we learn from other sources? When the ground 
is thus limited, few who have studied the manifold aspects 
of the most common-place life will be prepared to affirm 
that differences of tone and style, however marked, are 
necessarily inconsistent when they are attributed to the 
same character; few who have been familiarized with the 
wide divergences in detail of authentic narratives profess- 
edly complete, will insist with excessive confidence on 
different ranges of subject in narratives composed for a 
special purpose, to which completeness was always sub- 
ordinate. 
But, besides this general answer, there are other pre- 
sumptions which are sufficient to justify in 
(a) The difer-- fact what has been urged only as a possibility. 


ences as to locality 


and manner of The first objection that the locality and mode 

teaching mutually = 9 . τ 

explain each other; Of our Lord’s teaching, as recorded by St. 
John, are both different from those described 

by the Synoptists, is as much an undesigned coincidence 


as a difficulty. It would be natural to suppose that the 


1 Pp. 176 Π 212. 


‘ 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 287 


one would be, so to speak, a function of the other. The 
hearers and the doctrine are obviously connected by con- 
siderations of fitness. If it were the case that the method 
of instruction were the same while the persons were widely 
varied, or the persons the same while the teaching was 
changed, it might be fairly asked whether such differences 
would be likely to exist within the narrow limits over 
which the Lord’s ministry was extended. But, as it is, if 
it appear that there is a clear propriety in the twofold 
variation, answering alike to the immediate object and 
to the permanent office of the books, then the ground of 
objection becomes an indication of providential design, 
The want of all ages is found to be satisfied in the record 
of the Saviour’s labors in different countries and among 
different men. 

That there was such a division in the Jewish nation, as 
is implied in the characteristics of the mass 
of our Lord’s hearers in the Synoptists and 
St. John, is unquestionable. On the one side 
the peasantry of Galilee—that “warlike race,” as Jose- 
phus describes them, who had in earlier times withstood 
the chariots of Sisera, and were yet again to vindicate 
their independence against the arms of Rome! —still clung 
to the literal faith of their fathers in simplicity and zeal. 
They wished to raise Jesus to an earthly throne,’ and led 
Him in their Paschal train to the Holy City.’ Their relig- 
ion Jay in action and their faith in obedience. But far 
different was the state of those Jews who had been brought 
into contact with Greek intellect or Roman order. For 
them new regions of thought were opened, which seemed 


and wete involved 
in the history of 
the time, 


1 Compare Dr. Stanley’s Sermons on 
the Apostolic Age. p.84, n. 

2 John vi. 15. The address which fol- 
lowed in the synagogue at Capernaum 
to those who were already partially in- 
structed, may be compared with that in 
the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke iv. 16 
ff), at the beginning of Christ’s minis- 
try, as to its tone and results. 


8 John xii. 12—19. While St. John 
recognizes the peculiar character of 
this Galilean multitude, he does not 
detail the teaching addressed to them, 
which we find in the other Evangelists. 
This clearly points to a difference of 
scope and not to a divergence of tra- 
dition. 


288 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


to indicate that religion was only for the wise. They felt 
the full difficulty of founding any universal earthly sway, 
and either rejected the Messianic hopes as the result of 
fanaticism, or saw in the course of things around them 
the signs of some mighty spiritual change which should 
more than fulfil the metaphors of the ancient prophets. 
To the former class, whether at Capernaum or at Jerusa- 
jem, we find the truths ef Christianity addressed in their 
plainness. and active power. Parables and maxims are 
multiplied to enliven their apprehension and direct their 
energy... And on this teaching the missionary Gospels 
were naturally based, the Gospels of the Church’s infancy 
and growth, because the same conditions which shaped 
its form in the first instance called for its preservation 
afterwards. But to those who were reared under other 
influences, to the student of the law, “the teacher of Israel,” 
to the Samaritan, perplexed with doubts about the traditions 
of her fathers, to the cavillers who reposed in blind confi- 
dence on the Law, which was daily presented to them in 
the splendor of a noble ritual, to the disciples growing 
in faith, and yet unable to bear all that a loving Teacher 
would disclose, other modes of instruction were adapted. 
Now an awakening dialogue, now a startling revelation, 
now an outpouring of righteous zeal or gentle tenderness, 
furnished the materials for that Gospel which penetrates 
to the depths of individual life. Yet the popular and the 
personal styles of thought and language are perfectly 
harmonious. The histories which severally record them 
are not contradictory but complementary. They do not 
exclude but imply one another, They recognize generic 
differences which, as we know, existed among the Jews at 
the time; and it is no small proof of their authenticity 
that they satisfy the requirements of those great national 
parties in Judwa, which could scarcely have been realized 


1 The parables addressed to the rulers ence and (as it seems) for the instruc- 
and Pharisees in Matt. xxi. 28; xxii.l1 tion cf the multitude. Cf Matt. xxi. 
ff. were addressed to them in the pres- 20, 46. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 289 


by a writer whose ideas were drawn from a time when the 
centre of Jewish life was destroyed. 

Yet it may be said, that this general harmony between 
the two forms of teaching and the two classes 


: ; Moreover th 

of hearers is no answer to differences as to Hisbohies toa 
. . ΠΕ d 

the time and place of Christ’s ministry, as τρῶν, ended 


given by the different Evangelists. Jf the 

time were extended, if the place were varied, then the 
change in style would be intelligible; but the narrative of 
the Synoptists recognizes no such extension or movement. 
Here the incompleteness of the records precludes the 
possibility of a perfect answer; butit is enough that the 
Synoptists at least allow that the ministry of our Lord may 
have been as long and as diversified as St. John relates; 
and, indeed, many old writers, in their anxiety to establish 
a harmony between the Gospels, found in the fourth only 
an appendix to the other three, designed to fix their chro- 


nology and supply details which they left unnoticed. 
The very nature of the first promulgation of the Gospel, 
if we apprehend it according to the com- 


mon laws of history, demanded a lengthened 
period for its accomplishment.! 


which is antecedent- 
ly probable, and 


Apart from 


any express data, it must seem incredible that the course 


1 It isuseful tocall to mind constantly 
the extreme uncertainty which hangs 
over the exact length of our Lord’s min- 
istry. The only certain limits within 
which it must lie are the ‘15th year of 
the reign of Tiberius” (Luke iii. 1, a. Ὁ. 
28) and the recall of Pilate, just before 
the death of that emperor, A. Ὁ. 87, 
which leaves room enough for the tra- 
dition mentioned by Irenzus, on the 
authority of Asiatic tradition, that our 
Lord was at least 40 years old at the 
time of Ilis death (Iren. ii. 22,5). Even 
in the time of Irenzus there was nosat- 
isfactory information on the point; and 
the uncertainty of the Jewish calendar 
will not allow of any conclusion based 
on the day of the Paschal festival. Al- 


lowing that St. John only mentions 
three passovers (excluding vy. 1), I know 
of no arguments which can prove that 
he notices every passover in the course 
of our Lord’s ministry; and in such a 
case it seems by far the wisest course to 
leave the question undecided, as the 
Gospels leave it. 

I ought to refer the reader to the strik- 
ing arguments of Mr. Browne (Ordo Se- 
clorum) in support of the belief that the 
Lord’s ministry was limited to one year. 
If there were direct evidence in support 
of the omission of τὸ πάσχα in John vi. 
4, his case would be very strong. As it 
is, the point, as it seems, must be left 
wholly undetermined. 


20 


290 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 
of events which the Synoptists relate could have been 
compressed into a single year. Such narrow limits leave 
no adequate space for the development of faith in the 
disciples ; for the transition from hope to hatred in the mass 
of the people; for the varied journeys on both sides of 
Jordan and to “the borders of Tyre and Sidon;” for the 
missions of the Apostles and the Seventy, without suppos- 
ing a haste — almost a precipitancy — in the consummation 
of Christ’s personal work, which finds no parallel in the 
history of His preparation or in the labors of the Apostles. 
But, in fact, the Synoptists imply, in rare 
passages, the existence of a much more ex- 
tended ministry than they have described. 
St. Luke, in a casual date, marks the occurrence of a pass- 
over in the middle of his narrative; and the various 
allusions to Jerusalem which are scattered through the first | 
three Gospels show that the Lord must have been there 
before the time of the Passion;? while St. John, on the 
other hand, expressly notices that an earlier visit was made 
purposely in such a way as to avoid popular notice, 
“because the time (καιρός) was not yet fulfilled.” ® 

The objection which is drawn from the variations in the 
form of our Lord’s teaching admits also of a 
similar answer. The diversity is not only a 
necessary result of the diversity of hearers, 
as an extended scene was required by the 
nature of the message, but is actually recognized as exist- 
ing in our present records. There are mutual coincidences 
between St. John and the Synoptists which break the 
abruptness of the transition from the one to the other. 


actually acknowl- 
edged by them. 


And in the form 
of our Lord’s teach- 
ing offer parallels 
to St. John. 


1 Luke vi.1, ἐν σαββάτῳ δευτερο- 
πρώτῳ, yet it must be noticed that the 
word is omitted by important authori- 
ties. 

2 Cf. Matt. iv. 25; xxiii. 87—89 (πο- 
σάκις, ἄπαρτι); xxvii. 57. Luke x. 88 
ff. (Cf. John xi. 5). See also Matt. xix. 
1(Cf. John x. 40); viii. 18. 


8 John vii. 6, 10. St. John himself 
in this passage implies that Galilee was 
the chief theatre of our Lord’s teach- 
ing and works (vii. 8, 4), though he had 
recorded two previous visits to Jerusa- 
lem. In other places he leaves ample 
room for the Galilzan ministry; ii. 12; 
iy. 48, 54; v.1; vi. 1; vii. 1. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 291 


One fragment preserved by St. Matthew and St. Luke 
presents the closest resemblance in tone and manner to 
the discourses in St. John;! and St. John, while he avoids 
the exact type of the parable, has preserved the relation of 
addresses and acts, which are only parables transformed. 
In this respect it might seem that the differences of teach- 
ing lead us beyond the two great classes of hearers in 
Galilee and Jerusalem, and offer a characteristic trait which 
distinguishes the mass of Galilzean followers from the closer 
circle of the Apostles. 

It is not necessary to examine at length the last objection, 
which rests on the twofold view of the Lord’s : 

(Ὁ) Differences as 

Person given in the Gospels. So far as the ἰο our Lord's Per- 
differences on which this is based have any ~” 
real existence, they have been already noticed. They 
belong to the essence of supplementary records of Christ’s 
life. They are recognized in the Creeds as well as in the 
Bible. And all the circumstances connected with the 
fuller revelation of his glory were calculated to call it 
forth. The time, the persons, the oceasion, were suited for 
the teaching of the greater mysteries which must have 
been taught if Christianity is true. And there is a propor- 
tion preserved between the communication of the doctrine 
and the record of it which harmonizes with the general 
character of Scripture. The deeper truth was committed 
not to the multitude, but to the few; and the writing in 
which it is preserved was not the common witness of the 
Church, but the testimony of a loved disciple. 

The consideration of the differences be- _,?, Points ofeoin- 
tween the Synoptists and St. John has 
already led to the notice of some of their coincidences. 


1 Matt. xi. 25—30. Luke x, 21—24. tery of His death under symbolic Jan- 
guage both in St. John and in the Syn- 
2John x. 1-138; xv. 1-6; xii. 24; optists: John iii, 14; Matt. xii. 40; 
xvi. 21. John xiii. 4—12, Compare John ii. 20; Luke xiii. 82. For a still 
John iii. 29 with Matt. ix. 15. earlier revelation of the same truth, 
It is worthy of notice that our Lord compare John i. 29 with Luke ii, 35. 
is represented as yeiling the great mys- Compare p. 279 ἢ, 5. 


292 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


These extend to facts, to teaching, and to character; and 
contribute in no slight degree to invest the fourth Gospel 
with those attributes of reality and life, which are too 
commonly lost sight of in the discussion of its peculiar 
characteristics. 

The manner in which St. John alludes to some of the 
cardinal points of our Lord’s life, illustrates 
the usage of the Synoptists with regard to 
the lapse of time which takes place in their history. He 
assumes as known that which he nowhere specifies. His | 
full meaning is first perceived when contemplated in the 
light of facts which are only recorded by others. Though 
he does not relate in the course of his narrative the details 
of the Incarnation, the Baptism, the Last Supper, or the 
Ascension, yet he gives peculiar and unequivocal intima- 

tions of each event. The first statement of 

the Incarnation is absolute; it stands as a 
vast truth apart from all relation to individuals... But at 
the beginning of our Lord’s ministry, before He had 
“manifested forth His glory,” “the mother of Jesus” 
looked to Him in perfect dependence on His power, now 
that He had commenced His public ministry and gathered 
His disciples round Him? The life of “subjection,” which 
was at length closed, explains the nature of her request ; 
and the critical character of the moment is brought out yet 
more distinctly in the answer, “ Woman, what have I to 
do with thee?” which places in the clearest contrast the 
freedom of spiritual action and the claims of private duty. 
The history of the Infancy and the first miracle at Cana 
mutually explain each other. An act which is related by 
one Evangelist carries out the thoughts which are noticed 
by another’ Perfect independence issues in perfect har- 


(a) In fact. 


The Incarnation. 


1 John i. 14, ὁ Adyos σὰρξ ἐγένετο. yat, with the corresponding words 
2 John ii.1ff. St. John alone of the from the cross (xix. 26), Fuvat, ἴδε ὃ 
Evangelists does not mention the name vids σου, as St. John stood by, ready to 
of “‘the Mother of the Lord.” Itis a ‘take her to his own home.” 
point full of instruction to compare 
the phrase (ii. 4). τί ἐμοὶ καὶ σοί yv- 8. Luke ii. 51. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 293 


mony. In another aspect of the same great fact St. John 
dwells on the doctrine, while the Synoptists detail the 
events. St. Matthew and St. Luke narrate at length the 
history of the Miraculous Conception, and St. John dwells 
with especial fulness on the eternal Sonship of Christ, 
which is its divine correlative. The two truths must stand 
or fall together; for a Cerinthian mean can never express 
that union of God and man, which is alone sufficient to 
assure our hearts of redemption. 

If we pass from the Incarnation to the Baptism, we find 
in this also the same silence and the same 
implied knowledge of the circumstances of 
the occurrence. When John the Baptist first appears, his 
great work is done. The Christ is recognized. When 
Jesus comes, as it appears, from the scene of the Tempta- 
tion,’ he revealed Him to others and witnessed, saying, “I 
have seen the Holy Spirit descending as a dove from 
heaven, and it abode upon Him.” ? 

The allusions to the Christian sacraments are equally 
characteristic, though they are of a different 
kind. Nothing is said of the institution of 
the Eucharist or of Holy Baptism, and yet 
the conversation with Nicodemus® and the discourse at 
Capernaum stand in the closest relation with them, and 
unfold and enforce the inner meaning of rites with which 
the Apostle must have been familiar as ordinances of 
Christ. 

The references to the Ascension are, perhaps, the most 
remarkable example of the manner in which 
St. John includes the historical fact in the 
spiritual necessity of it. He gives at length the discourses 


The Baptism. 


The Eucharist: 
Holy Baptism. 


The Ascension. 


1 This seems to be the natural way of 
connecting the narratives of St. John 
and the Synoptists, and to involve no 
difficulty. 

2 The apparent discrepancy between 
John i. 81 and Matt. iii. 14 disappears 
when we remember that the fulfilment 


of John’s public mission was to be 
indicated by a definite sign (John i. 
31—35), and thus his personal knowl- 
edge (Matt. iii. 14, 15) was independent 
of his power of prophetic recognition 
(John i. 81). 

3 iii. 5. Cf. [Mark] xvi. 16; Acts ii. 38. 


25* 


294 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 

in which the need and the consequences of the event are 
explained at full; after the Resurrection, he records the 
remarkable address of our Lord to Mary, in which it is 
contemplated as an immediate occurrence; and yet he says 
nothing of the fulfilment of the promise.’ It is enough 
that the fact was a part of the divine order. As such for 
him it was, and his readers knew from other sources how 
it took? place.? 

The marked distinction between the teaching of our 
Lord in St. John and in the Synoptists has 
been recognized most fully; but it has been 
shown that there are points of connection by which the 
two are in some degree united. This connection admits 
of being presented somewhat more in detail, in regard of 
the substance as well as of the manner of the teaching. 
There is, indeed, something of characteristic difference 


(Ὁ) In teaching. 


1 John xx. 17. With this may be 
compared the fact that while St. John 
gives most fully the Discourse on the 
Mission of the Comforter, St. Luke 
records the descent of the Holy Spirit 
(Acts ii.), though he does not notice 
the antecedent promise. So again, St. 
John alone notices the special commis- 
sion of the Apostles (xx. 21,22. Cf. 
Matt. xxviii. 19, 20), which is after- 
wards seen to be realized in the history 
of the Church. 

In illustration of the usage of St. 
John it may be remarked that St. Paul 
presupposes the mystery of the Incar- 
nation without expressly stating it: 
Rom. i. 4; ix. δ. Gal. iv. 4, 5; and 
includes the Ascension in the Resur- 
rection; 1 Thess. i. 10. The Pauline 
teaching of the second Adam (1 Cor. 
xy. 45) may also be compared with 
John iii. 6. 

2 At the one meeting-point of all the 
Gospels before the history of the Pas- 
sion (John yi. 1 ff. and parallel ac- 
counts) their harmony is perfect. The 
recurrence of Κόφινος, which is only 
used in the account of this miracle in 


the New Testament, in all the narratives 
is worthy of notice. 

Among other facts which St. John 
mentions incidentally as well-known 
are the calling of “ the twelve” (ἐκλέ- 
ξασϑαι, John vi. 70. Cf. Luke vi. 13): 
the difference between our Lord’s birth- 
place and place of abode (John vii. 42): 
His relation to Joseph (i 46; vi. 42). 

3 This clear presupposition of an ac- 
curate acquaintance with the facts of 
the life of Christ, which is shown in 
these minute references, and penetrates 
the whole Gospel, has two important 
bearings, which, although necessarily 
connected, yet refer to different lines 
of thought. In detail it tends to estab- 
lish the minute truth of the events re- 
corded by the Evangelists; and more 
generally, by showing that the spiritual 
aspect of the evangelic facts was re- 
vealed at a time when the simple nar- 
ratives were already current, it refutes 
the theory of an imaginary history 
invented to supply a mental want. 
The truth lay in the facts; but the facts 
were accepted in themselves before 
their inner meaning was laid open. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 295 


both in the conception and in the expression of the same 
truths, but such that the difference contributes to the com- 
pleteness of the final idea. Thus, in St. Matthew the 
crowning doctrine of the Holy Trinity is expressed in the 
formula of Baptism; in St. John it is contemplated in the 
personal relation of the Christian to the Father and the 
Son and the Comforter.'. The mystery of the Atonement 
lies at the bottom of many of our Lord’s Jast words to His 
disciples, but it nowhere is stated with such simple dis- 
tinctness as in the phrase recorded by St. Matthew and 
St. Mark, in which it is said that “the Son of man came 
.... to give His life a ransom for many.”? In the 
Synoptists, no less than in St. John, Christ claims for 
Himself the possession of “all power,”® the forgiveness of 
sins, the sole revelation of the Father.t In both there are 
traces of the same images, of the same thoughts, of the 
same language.’ And it is most important to observe that 
St. John nowhere attributes to our Lord the key-words of 


1 Matt. xxviii. 19; John xv. xvi. xvii. 

2 Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45 (λύτρον 
ἀντὶ πολλῶν). The word λύτρον is not 
found elsewhere in the New Testament. 
᾿Αντίλυτρον occurs 1 Tim. ii. 6. 

3 Matt. xxviii. 18. Cf. xxii. 41—46. 

4 Matt. xi. 27. 

5 The following examples will be suf- 
ficient to justify what is said: 

1. COINCIDENCES IN IMAGERY. 

John iii. 3 (the new birth); Matt. 
xviii. 8 (become as little children). 

John iv. 35; Matt. ix. 37 (the great 
harvest). 

John xiii. 1 ff.; Luke xii. 37 (the Mas- 
ter serving). Cf. Luke xxii. 27. 

John xiii. 16; Matt. x. 24, 25 (the 
master and servant). 

John iii. 29; Matt. xxii. 2 (the bride- 
groom). 


2. COINCIDENCES IN THOUGHT. 
John vy. 14; Matt. xii. 483—45 (the 
worse thing). 
John ix. 89; Matt. xiii.18. Cf. John 
xii. 40 (the eyes blinded). 


Jobn xiii. 20; Matt. x. 40 (the Father 
received by the faithful). 

John νυ. 80; Matt. xxvi. 39 (the Fa- 
ther’s will done). 

John iii. 17; Luke ix. 56 (the mission 
to save). 

John vii. 29; x. 15; Matt. xi. 27 (the 
Father known to Christ). 


8. COINCIDENCES IN LANGUAGE. 


John iv. 44; Matt. xiii. 57 (the 
prophet without honor). 

John xii. 25; Luke xvii. 33 (the soul 
loved and lost). 

John y. 8; Mark ii. 9 (the words of 
healing). 

To these may be added the parallel 
reports of the judgment of the people: 
John iy. 19; Luke vii. 16—John yi. 42; 
Matt. xiii. 55—John vii. 15; Matt. xiii. 
54. And while the Synoptists (Matt. 
xxvi. 61) mention the special charge 
against the Lord of speaking against 
the Temple, St. John alone gives the 
words which led to the charge (John 
ii. 19. Cf. Matt. xii. 6). : 


296 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


his own terminology. In his Gospel, as in the others, 
Christ speaks of Himself as “the Son” or “the Son of 
man,” and never as “the Word.” 1 

One other point of coincidence between the Synoptists 
and St. John still remains to be noticed, — the 
coincidence of the characters which they de- 
scribe. The scene varies, the manner varies, the substance 
(in some sense) varies, but the great figures who give life to 
the picture are the same. This kind of resemblance, which 
in fiction is one of the subtlest refinements of art, in such 
writings as the Gospels is a clear sign of absolute truth. 
Where it cannot spring from elaborate design, it must be 
the result of faithful portraiture. 

It has been often and most truly said that the character 
of our Lord, as drawn by the Evangelists, is 
in itself the one sufficient proof of their 
veracity. No character could have been 
further removed from the popular ideal of the time; none 
more entirely beyond the conception of men reared amidst 
dreams of national hope, and checked at every step by the 
signs of foreign power. A natural awe commonly hinders 
us from picturing to ourselves the Person of our blessed 


(c) In character. 


The character of 
the Lord, 


1 John iii. 10—21, and 27—386, might 
at first sight seem exceptions to this 
remark. Yet, on a careful reading of 
the passages, it seems impossible not to 
feel that the Evangelist is in part com- 
menting on and explaining the testi- 
mony which he records. The com- 
ments seem to begin respectively at 
verses 16 and 81. These additions will 
seem less singular if we remember that 
they set forth the spiritual essence of 
Christianity in relation to the legal 
righteousness and to the preparatory 
Jone” of the Baptist. See 

sage explanatory comments receive 

ng illustration from a single 
Gospels ὃς oauced into John xvii. 3. 
auton (Johnrn σοῦς Χριστὺς in such a 
ee μπθιΣ wholly without parallel 


ecur i 
recurrence UR eae must, I think, 
used in the acco 


regard τὸν μ. GA. Θεὸν and I. Xp. as 
explanations of the preceding, added 
by the Evangelist, which do not modify 
but only define the sense. Cf. 1 John 
v. 20. The title Jesus Christ is com- 
monly given to our Lord in the Acts 
and Epistles, but occurs only in the 
introductions to the Gospels: Matt. i. 
1, 16,18; Mark i. 1; John i. 17, or, in 
other words, in those sections which 
formed no part of the original tradi- 
tion. This peculiarity is important, as 
showing the two stages in the history 
of the Gospels, though it will not bear 
out the conclusion which Dr. Dobbin 
(Davidson, Introd. i. 421 ff.) drew from 
it, as to the priority of the Gospels in 
their present form to the Epistles. Cf. 
pp. 211 ff. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 297 


Lord with any individual distinctness. In one sense it is 
true that He has no individuality, for the aspects of His 
human nature are practically infinite; but we do not even 
apprehend His character individually in the different lights 
in which it is presented. The mind shrinks from analysis, 
lest criticism should take the place of devotion; and yet 
there is a sense in which even we may “see Christ in the 
flesh,” and strengthen our faith by the contemplation of 
those traits of a divine humanity, which furnish for all 
ages the perfect type of life. Touching only on one small 
border of this subject, we may notice some features in the 
character of our Lord which are traced both in the Synop- 
tists and St. John. The variety of the circumstances 
establishes the truthfulness of the impression, and helps to 
present the Saviour to us, not as a mere embodiment of an 
idea, as some have taught, but moving in a world of action, 
and influenced by the complex feelings to which we are 
subject. At the beginning and the close of His work, St. 
John, as we have already seen,! shows how He drew a line 
between natural and spiritual claims; so in the Synoptists, 
“He stretched forth His hand to His disciples, and said, 
Behold my mother and my brethren,” when, for a moment, 
His earthly kindred sought to interrupt His work of 
mercy.2 By the well at Sychar He sat down “ wearied,” 
and then forgot His request and His fatigue in conversing 
with the Samaritan, so that “His disciples prayed Him, 
saying, Master, eat. But He said unto them, I have meat 
to eat that ye know not οἵ ὃ And so again, after He had 
retired into the wilderness with His disciples, for “they 
had no leisure so much as to eat,” when He saw much 
people, He “was moved with compassion toward them, 
and began to teach them many things.”* In each case the 
same bodily want is recognized, and in each case it yields 
to the pressure of a higher desire. The Jews, when they 


1 p. 292, n. 2. 3 John iy. 6, 7, 31 ff. 
2 Matt. xii. 46 ff.; Mark iv. 82 ff; 
Luke viii. 19. 4 Mark vi. 31 ff. Cf. Mark iii. 20. 


9298 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


saw His acts of authority, said unto Him, “ What sign 
showest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these 
things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this 
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “An evil 
and adulterous generation,” He said, in another place, 
“seeketh after a sign; and there shall be no sign given to 
it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.”! In both cases the 
manner, the thought, the lesson, is the same. We feel that 
both are utterances of the same Person, and yet such that 
no mere power of imitation could have passed from one to 
the other. John, when in prison, sent to ask Christ, “Art 
Thou He that should come, or do we look for another? 
Jesus answered, ....Go and show John again those 
things which ye do hear and see.” “If I had not come and 
spoken unto them, they had not had sin..... If I had 
not done among them the works which none other man 
did, they had not had sin.”? The testimony of word 
and deed, that is enough to reassure the last prophet who 
would have hastened, it may be, the glory of Christ’s 
kingdom, and to condemn those who “had seen and hated 
both Him and His Father.” A short sentence from the 
lips of One who “knew what was in man” lays open the 
whole inner life and brings to its final issue the struggle 
which divides it, whether of faithful repentance, as, when 
He said, “Go, call thy husband,” or of sad abandonment, 
as, When He gave the command to him whom He loved, 
“Go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the 
poor.”*® Nicodemus, when he seemed to claim for himself 
the gift of wise discernment, was met by the answer, 
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God.” When the disciples disputed “Who is the 
greatest,” Jesus set a little child in the midst of them, and 
said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little child- 
ren, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”* The 


1 John ii. 19; Matt. xii. 39. 8 John. iv. 16; Mark x. 21. 
4 John iii. 8 (οἴδαμεν, ver. 2); Matt. 
2 Matt. xi. 4; John. xv. 24. xviii. 1 @ 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 299 


multitude crowded round Him in wild anger, and “ He hid 
Himself, and going through the midst of them so passed 
by,” if, perhaps, their sin might be yet averted... The same 
simple words, “ Follow me,” mark the discipleship of Philip 
in St. John, which elsewhere determine the call of Mat- 
thew.” The over-zealous request of St. Peter was antici- 
pated by a question which reproved his zeal, and in the 
same way the salutation of Nathanael seems to have 
replied to the doubts with which his mind was filled. In 
St. John, as in the Synoptists, the dealing of our Lord with 
those who came to Him is everywhere marked by the 
same absolute insight, so that His words were the touch- 
stone by which their thoughts were revealed. Love is 
blended with judgment, and the voice of encouragement 
with the call to faith, in a way which finds no parallel in 
history. The image is divine, and bears witness to a 
divine prototype. 

The vastness of the character of the Lord is best seen 
by contrast with any of the other characters 
in the Gospels. These, however noble, are 
yet limited, and capable of being realized in 
a definite form. Every one has a distinct conception of 
St. Peter and St. John. They have an individuality which, 
in this sense, our Lord could not have; and St. Peter, 
above all, is the one in whom this is most marked. Quick 
in action even to rashness, and bold in word even to 
presumption, he is yet the founder of the outward Church. 
In St. John, and in the Synoptists, the essential outlines 
of his character answer to the symbolic name which all the 
Evangelists notice as given to him by Christ;* and several 


The character 
of St. Peter. 


1 John viii. 59; Luke iy. 30. 

2 John i. 43 (cf. xxi. 19); Matt. ix. 9 
(cf. viii. 22). Compare also the δεῦτε 
ὀπίσω μου, Matt. iv. 19. 

3 Matt. xvii. 25; John i. 47, 48. 

4 John i. 42, Σὺ εἶ Σίμων ὁ vids ᾿Ιωά- 
vou: σὺ KAndion Κηφᾶς ὃ ἑρμηνεύε- 
ται Πέτρος. This prophetic naming 


(κληϑήσῃ) may haye been repeated at 
the commission of the Twelve, though 
there is nothing in the language used 
in describing that event which neces- 
sarily leads to that conclusion (Matt. 
x. 2, Σίμων ὃ λεγόμενος Πέτρος. Luke 
iii. 16, καὶ ἐπέϑηκε ὄνομα τῷ Σ. Πέ- 
tpov. Luke vi. 14, ὃν καὶ ὠνόμασε 


300 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


corresponding traits may be placed together so as to show 
the real unity which lies beneath the different narratives. 
In the first two Gospels it is related that when our Lord 
began to speak of His coming sufferings at Jerusalem, 
“Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it 
far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.” In St. 
John, when at the last supper Christ served His disciples, 
and girded Himself to wash their feet, “Peter saith unto 
Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.”! He cannot fora 
moment endure the thought of the humiliation of his Lord, 
whether among His enemies or His own followers; and if 
he adds afterwards with the overhaste of a natural reaction: 
“Lord, not my feet only, but also my head and my hands ;” 
it is, as when at the Transfiguration, he would have “ built 
three tabernacles” for Christ and Moses and Elias, “not 
knowing what he said,” but eager to realize to the fulla 
blessing of which he only half perceived the import, and 
unable to wait in calm assurance on the will of His Master? 
This impatient energy, which seems to be ever striving 
after the issues of things, made him give expression in 
many cases to the thoughts which others cherished, per- 
haps vaguely.* Thus it was in his noble confession of 
Christ’s divine majesty, in which St. John has preserved 
one trait of singular interest. According to the details 
which he has recorded, the confession itself was connected 
with action: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast 
the words (ῥήματα) of eternal life,”’* and in virtue of this 


Πέτρον). St. Mark uses the same phrase 
of the title of the sons of Zebedee: 
καὶ ἐπέϑηκεν αὐτοῖς ὀνόματα Boavep- 
γές, a title which evidently points to 
some special fact, which can hardly 
have been connected with their ap- 
pointment to the Apostolate. Thecon- 
trast between John i. 42, σὺ ef Σίμων 
and the phrase preserved by St. Mat- 
thew in the record of the confession is 
very striking: Matt. xvi. 17, σὺ εἶ Πέ- 
tpos. The prophecy was then ful- 
filled. 


] Matt. xvi. 21 ff ; Mark viii. 31 ΤῸ; 
John xiii. 8. 

2 John xiii. 9; Matt. xvii. 4; Mark 
ix. 5, 6; Luke ix. 33. 

3 This is seen in several little traits: 
Mark xi. 21, ἀναμνησϑεὶς 6 Π. λέγει. 
Matt. xxi. 20, ἰδόντες of μαϑηταὶ édav- 
μασαν. Luke yiii. 45, εἶπεν ὁ TI. καὶ 
οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ. Mark y. 81, ἔλεγον of 
μαϑηταὶ αὐτῷ. 

4 John vi. 68,69. The words are the 
true complement of Luke v. 8. Cf. 
Matt. xvi. 17; Mark viii.29; Luke ix. 20. 


3 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 01 


practical power he received the special charge: “Do thou 
when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren.”’ Else- 
where he would know of the future of himself or others: 
“ Behold, we forsook all and followed Thee, what shall we 
have therefore?”? ‘Lord, and what shall this man do?” 
He cannot rest in uncertainty where knowledge might 
prove the guide to deeds. If the Lord spoke of “blind 
leaders,” he said, “Declare unto us this parable;” if of 
watchful service, “Lord, speakest Thou this parable unto 
(πρός) us, or even unto all?” if of a traitor among the 
Apostles, he beckoned to “the disciple who leaned on 
Jesus’ bosom,” “Tell who it is of whom He speaks;” "1 of 
a coming separation, “Lord, why cannot I follow Thee 
now?”* Frequently the characteristics of St. Peter are 
seen in action. Now he would pay the Temple tribute for 
Christ, as jealous for His ritual “righteousness;” now he 
follows Him “with a sword” to Gethsemane.®> We feel at 
once that the walking on the waters and the failing faith 
are a true figure of his following Christ to the place of 
judgment and then denying Him.’ Then follows the swift 


1 Luke xxii. 32 f. σύ mote ἐπιστρέ- 
Was. 

2 Matt. xix. 27. 
Luke xviii. 28. 

3 John xxi. 21, Κύριε οὗτος δὲ τί. 

4 Matt. xv. 15; Luke xii. 41; John 
xiii. 24 (Cf. p. 269, n. 1): John xiii. 37. 


scene as it may be supposed to have 
happened. 

All the Evangelists fix the place 
as the same, ‘‘the court of the High 
Priest? (ἡ αὐλὴ τοῦ ἀρχιερέως, Matt. 
xxvi. 58; Mark xiy. 54; Luke xxii. 54, 
55; John xviii. 16, 17). The narrative 


Cf. Mark x. 28. 


Compare the question, Matt. xviii. 21: 
“Lord, how oft shall my brother sin 
against me, and I forgive him?” 

5 Matt. xvii. 24; John xviii. 10. 

6 Matt. xiv. 28; xxvi. 35, and paral- 
Jels. Much discussion has been raised 
as to the narratives of the denial of St. 
Peter, and the differences which occur 
in them are generally insisted upon as 
offering the clearest proof of the im- 
possibility of maintaining the verbal 
accuracy of the Evangelists. A com- 
parison of the texts in question rather 
creates surprise that difficulty should 
have been felt by any who picture the 


26 


of St. John, which distinguishes a 
hearing before Annas from the hearing 
before Caiaphas, yet clearly implies 
that all the denials were made in the 
same spot (xviii. 18, 25). From this 
fact, connected with Luke xxii. 61, 
etc., it seems probable that ὁ the house 
of the High Priest "" included the offi- 
cial apartments of Annas and Caia- 
phas. (Cf. Strauss, § 127.) 

But it is said, the persons who pro- 
voke Peter to the denial are differently 
given. This requires careful notice. 
(1) All the Evangelists agree that the 
first question was put by “8 damsel” 


302 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


and complete reaction. St. John first looks into the empty 
sepulchre, but St. Peter first enters it.’ St. John first 
recognizes the risen Lord on the sea of Tiberias, but St. 
Peter first casts himself into the water to be with Him’? 
Perfect truthfulness alone can account for the minute har- 
mony of all the features in such a character, portrayed in 


books most widely separated in origin and date. 
More difficulty has been felt in combining into one 
picture the various traits which have been 


The character of 
St. John. 


recorded of the person of St. John. 


He is 


but rarely mentioned in the Synoptists, and 
a mighty revolution was interposed between these earlier 


notices and the testimonies of his own writings. 


Besides 


this the character itself is one which almost eludes descrip- 


tion. 


The intense concentration and power of an inner 


life flashes out at some rare moments, but commonly the 


life flows on with deep and still course. 


(Matt. xxvi. 69, μία παιδίσκη. Mark 
xiy. 66, μία τῶν παιδισκῶν τοῦ ἄρχιε- 
péws. Luke xxii. 56, παιδίσκη τις. 
John xviii. 17,7 παιδίσκη 7 Supwpds). 
St. John adds that she was ‘“‘ the por- 
tress,” St. Luke that the question was 
put as St. Peter ‘“‘sat by the fire;” so 
far all is perfectly harmonious, for I 
do not notice the variations in the 
words of the question, which are Greek 
renderings of the Aramaic, and per- 
fectly agree in sense. (2) In the nar- 
rative of the second denial the persons 
who assail St. Peter are variously given. 
St. Matthew (71) says “another wo- 
man” (ἄλλη); St. Mark (69) ‘the same 
damsel” (ἡ παιδίσκη); St. Luke (58) 
“ another man” (€Tepos); St. John (25) 
simply, ‘they said” (εἶπον). ‘The 
phrase of St. John brings the whole 
scene before us as the others describe 
it in detail. A crowd is gathered round 
the fire (John xviii. 18); the portress 
tells her suspicions to the bystanders 
(Mark xiv. 69); the accusation is re- 
peated by various persons, and St. 
Peter left the group (Matt. xxvi. 71, 


St. John was, 


ἐξελϑόντα εἰς τὸν πυλῶνα), repeating 
his hasty denial (Mark xiv. τὸ, ἠρνεῖτο. 
No one uses the imperfect in the former 
case). (3) This most natural concep- 
tion of the event is further brought 
out on the third denial. St. Luke (59) 
says, ‘‘ another said, Of a truth this fel- 
low also was with Him; for he is a 
Galilean.” St.John (26), ‘One of the 
servants of the High Priest, being his 
kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, 
Did not Isee thee in the garden with 
Him?” HereSt. Matthew and St. Mark 
notice the number of the assailants: 
ds they that stood by said * (Matt. xxvi. 
73, οἱ ἑστῶτες εἶπον. Mark xiv. 70, 
of παρεστῶτες EXEYOr). Thenarra- 
tives present us with three acts of de- 
nial, as they may be most naturally 
supposed to haye taken place in 8 
crowded court, in the excitement of a 
popular ferment. 

On the conduct of St. Peter himself 
Luthardt has some good remarks: a. @. 
O. 108 ff. 

1 John xx. 6. 

2 John xxi. 7. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 303 


indeed, a “Son of Thunder,”! but the thunder is itself the 
unfrequent witness of the might of elements long gather- 
ing. There is a difference between the style of St. John 
and that which we should assign to the Galilzean apostle, 
but the style is only the reflection of his completed charac- 
ter. There is the difference between a former and a latter 
faith, such as we find also between the recorded acts and 
epistles of St. Peter; but in the Apocalypse, and the Cath- 
olic letters of St. John, we trace the identity of his nature 
in the course of its development. The same zeal which 
would have called fire from heaven on the inhospitable 
Samaritans, though guided now to another end, denounces 
plagues and destruction on him who takes from or adds to 
the words of his prophecy.2, The same jealousy for Christ 
which forbade the working of one who followed not with 
them, though purified by a higher faith, warns the elect 
lady not to bid God speed to him who abideth not in the 
doctrine The same fervent spirit in defence of truth is, 
as has been seen, recognized by tradition, and that, too, 
combined with the tenderest love.t Nor is there any incon- 
sistency in such a combination. The same deep feeling is 
the source of both characteristics. And as the affectionate 
letters to the Philippians and to Timothy, with their clearer 
revelations of divine truth, only unfold to us another view 
of the great Apostle, so the Gospel of St. John, in its ful- 
ness of meditative devotion, helps us to realize the whole 
Christian course of him who first, with eager hope, acknowl- 
edged in Jesus the Lamb of God, and saw in the Spirit 
of God farthest into the history of the Church, and guarded 
most jealously its early creed Throughout the whole life 
of St. John,—in Samaria, in Patmos, in Ephesus, in the 
old world of Judaism, in the new world of Christianity, 


1The form of the surname is well 2 Luke ix. 45; Apoc. xxii. 18. 
explained by Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. ad 3 Luke ix. 49; 2 John, 9, 10. 
Mare. iii. 17; the general sense by 4 Cf. p. 234 f. 


Meyer, and most recent commentators 
on the passage. 5 John i. 85—87; Apoc. i. 10. 


304 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


and in that meeting-point of the two dispensations, which 
was the fiery trial of the early Church; in the most distant 
times, and in the most diverse lands, we ever find the same 
personal devotion to the Lord, as the embodiment of the 
Divine, —alike distinguished from the zeal of St. Peter 
for His outward glory, and the energy of St. Paul for His 
extended influence, — enlightened, indeed, and spiritualized 
by the growth of Christianity in himself and in the world, 
and yet unchanged. The youthful, womanly form, which 
art has assigned to St. John, has served to remove from 
our minds the stronger features of his nature. Yet these 
may not be forgotten, for even in this aspect the eagle is 
his true symbol. His love was no soft feeling, but a living 
principle, an absolute devotion to truth, as he had seen and 
known it in the Person of his Lord. He stands forth as 
the ideal of a thoughtful Christian, relentless against evil, 
and yet patient with the doubting. He “tarried till the 
Lord came,” and left his Gospel as the witness and seal of 
the accomplishment of the apostolic work.) 

From this point of sight the new scope of his Gospel 
answered to the conditions of a new world. 
The period which intervened between the 
dates of the Synoptic Gospels and St. John’s 
was, beyond any other, full of the distress of nations with 
perplexity, and marked by the shaking of the powers of 
heaven, which proved, so to speak, to be 
the birth-pains of the Christian Church. 
When St. John wrote, the Jews were led away captive into 


St. John’s Gospel 
tn relation to a new 
world. 


Judaism. 


1 There is not space now to dwell on 
the other characters traced in St. John, 
but one general remark must be made. 
The number of distinct persons por- 
trayed by him is a singular mark of 
the authenticity of his narrative. In 
the Synoptic Gospels no one stands 
out from the Apostles except St. Peter, 
and perhaps the sons of Zebedee, but 
in St. John we have characteristic 
traits of St. Andrew (i. 41 ff.; vi. 8, 9; 


xii. 22), St. Philip (i. 44 δ᾿; vi. 5; xii. 
21 ff. xiv. 8 f.), St. Thomas (xi. 16; xiv. 
5; xx. 24 ff.), St. Jude (xiv. 22). The 
parallel between Luke x. 89 ff. with 
John xi. has been often drawn. 

2 Luke xxi. 25, 26. Cf. Tac. Hist. i. 
2, 3. Sometimes the language of the 
historian coincides verbally with Serip- 
ture: Preter multiplices rerum huma- 
narum Casus, οἷο terraque prodigia et 
fulminum monitus. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 805 


all nations,' and men asked why God had cast away His 
people? what there was in the Gospel-history which ex- 
plained the rejection of the seed of Abraham, of whom, 
as concerning the flesh, Christ came ? 

On another side, St. Paul had given to Christianity its 
intellectual development. He had completed 
the work which St. Peter had begun, and , Cystsnty αϑ 
maintained the freedom of the Gentile con- 
verts who had been first received by the Apostle of the 
Circumcision. The storm which had raged 
from Jerusalem to Pontus, from Antioch to 
Rome, had now ceased, but the fashion of the Church was 
changed, and men asked what ground there was in the 
teaching of the Messiah for this new form of Christianity ? 

And yet again, Christianity had come into contact with 
Philosophy. The voice of the preacher had 
been heard in Alexandria by the scholars of 
Philo, and at Hierapolis by the friends of 
Epictetus; and many must have inquired how far the new 
doctrines served to unfold the inner life of man? how far 
they fulfilled the aspirations of the Academy, and realized 
the morality of the Porch. 

To all these deep questionings, unencountered for the 
most part by the former Evangelists, who 
regarded rather the outward form of the χὰ ree 
Christian faith than its rational or spiritual e7#ecro o te 
development, St. John replies by the teaching 
of the Lord’s Life. The Jews, as a nation, had rejected 
the Saviour: He came to His own, and His own received 
Him not.2 Throughout the whole ministry of Christ, as 
recorded in the fourth Gospel, the progress of this wilful 
blindness is traced, till the record closes with the fatal 
sentence: Though Jesus had done so many miracles before 
them, yet the Jews believed not on Him; as Esaias prophe- 
sied when he saw His glory, and spake of Him 


Acts x. 47. 


Philosophy. 
Col. iv. 13. 


1 Luke xxi. 24. 8 John i. 11; xii. 37—41. Cf. p. 279. 
2 John i. 11 (τὰ ἴδια, of ἴδιοι). One peculiarity of St. John’s lan- 
26* 


306 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


Nor are the great doctrines on which St. Paul delighted 
to dwell, —the doctrines of faith, of love, of 


Christian doc- 
trine. 


providence, of a redemption, of a Holy 


Spirit, — brought out less distinctly by St. 


John than the fall of the Jews.) 


It is true that we can 


trace these great elements of Christianity in the symbolic 
teaching of the Synoptists, and in scattered sayings; but 


they form the staple of St. John’s narrative. 


The lesson 


is at least ‘codrdinate with the fact; and the plain revela- 


guage in this view is to be noticed. He 
speaks of the opponents of the Lord 
almost always as ‘the Jews’ (οἱ Ἴου- 
daiot), which phrase is never used by 
the Synoptists in this sense, who em- 
ploy the specific terms, “the Phari- 
sees,” etc. St. John uses the term ‘‘ the 
Pharisees” frequently in a definite sense 
(i. 24; iv. 1, etc.), but never ‘the 
scribes” (John viii. 3 is even on this 
account to be condemned), “the law- 
yers,” “the Sadducees.”” The Synop- 
tists, on the other hand, only put the 
title ‘‘ the Jews” in the mouth of Gen- 
tiles: Matt. ii. 2; Matt. xxvii. 11 ff and 
parallels, with very rare exceptions, 
where they add notes, as it were, to the 
original narrative: Matt. xxviii. 15; 
Mark vii. 3; Luke vii. 3; xxiii. 51 
(though these two last instances are 
more remarkable). St. John regards 
the nation after its final apostasy, and 
the distinctions of party are lost in 
their common unbelief. It seems 
strange that some commentators should 
have grounded an objection on this 
᾿ “undesigned coincidence” between the 
scope and the language of the Gospel. 
The usage of St. Luke in the Acts nat- 
urally agrees with that of St. John. 

Some alleged historical difficulties 
will be noticed afterwards in Chap. 
Vill. 


1 It would carry us too far to do more 
than allude to the parallel which may 
be drawn between St. John and St. 
Paul on these great topics. The fol- 


lowing hints may suggest a line of 
inquiry: 

a. Faith. Never the abstract πίστις, 
but always active as πιστεύειν eis, a 
transference of our hope to another 
and not a mere assent to a fact, πιστεύ- 
εἰν τινι, a construction which occurs 
commonly in this sense (iy. 21, 50, etc.). 
Thus the act. of faith appears as the 
ground of sonship (i. 12), life (iii. 15, 
etc.; xi. 25, 26, etc.), support (vi. 35), 
inspiration (vii. 38), guidance (xii. 36, 
46), power (xiv. 12), ‘the work of 
God” (vi. 29). In the Synoptists 
“ faith” (πίστι5) is the mediative energy 
in material deliverances (Matt. ix. 22; 
Mark ν. 84; x. 52; Luke vii. 50; viii. 
48; xvii. 19: xviii. 42), as the types of 
higher deliverance, and the measure of 
material power (Matt. ix. 29; xxi. 21; 
Mark xi. 22). 

ὃ. Love. John xiii. 84; xv.12. (Con- 
trast Matt. xxii. 89). 1 Cor. xiii. 

c. Providence. ‘ Predestination.” 
John vi. 64, 65; iii. 27; vi. 87, 44; v.21; 
xv. 16 (cf. vi. 70); xv. 5; xvii. 12. In 
this connection 7 ὥρα, of the crisis in 
each stage of our Lord’s Life, and spe- 
cially of His Passion, as its crowning 
point: ii. 4; vii. 80; viii. 20; xii. 28, 27; 
xiii. 1; xvi. 4; xvii. 1. Cf. 6 καίρος, 
vii. 6—8. 

d. Redemption. i. 29; iii. 14, 15; vi. 
51; xii. 24; xiii. 81. Comp. Rom. y.8 
with John iii. 16. 

6. The divisioninman. 1.18. Comp. 
Rom. vii. 6 with John iii. 6, and John 
vi. 68 with 2 Cor. iii. 6. 


THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 307 


tions which he made, as he recorded the deep words on 
which he had long pondered, furnish the means of recog- 
nizing the actual fulness of the other Gospels. Without 
St. John, it might seem possible to say, with a recent 
writer, “Not Paul but Jesus;” but with him, the unity of 
the New Testament is vindicated, and the chain of its 
connection finished. 

The intimate connection of St. John’s Gospel with the 
greatest problems of thought and life has 
never been questioned. A few words are 
sufficient to show that the Apostle had felt that there are 
mysteries beyond all human understanding; and he was 
contented to state them in the simplicity of antithetic 
truths. From the first consecration of social intercourse 
at the Marriage Feast to the last utterances of a Master’s 
love, the course of spiritual life and death is traced in its 
progressive stages, as the words and works of the Lord 
are recorded, year by year, advancing together in ever- 
widening spheres to their final consummation. The 
sublime prayer of Plato’ is answered by that Word 
which abides in us and we in Him. The 
possibility of the true life, of which Stoicism 
was but a counterfeit, is secured by the promised Com- 
forter, through Whom we shall do the works 
which Christ did, and greater works than 
these, because He has gone to the Father? 

This was the teaching from the Life of Christ which 
was required by the age at which St. John wrote, and it 
has been seen that he was peculiarly fitted to supply it. 
His early call to the Apostleship enabled him to regard 


Human thought. 


John xv. 7. 


John xiv. 12. 


1 Plat. Phed. 85 B; δεῖν yap... τὸν 
βέλτιστον τῶν avSpwrivey λόγων Aa- 
βόντα καὶ δυσελεγκτότατον, ἐπὶ τού- 
του ὀχούμενον, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ σχεδίας, 
κινδυνεύοντα διαπλεῦσαι τὸν βὲον, εἰ 
μή τις δύναιτο ἀσφαλέστερον καὶ ἄκιν- 
δυνότερον ἐπὶ βεβαιοτέρου ὀχήματος ἢ 
λόγου ϑείου τινὸς διαπορευϑῆναι. 


2 Perhaps it is from looking at the 
mysterious depths of thought and Jan- 
guage, often unintelligible to the 
thinker and speaker, that St. John re- 
cords the unconscious testimony of 
unbelievers: xi. 51; xix. 21, 22; (xviii. 
88). 


308 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. 


Christianity from a Christian point of sight; he had to 
experience no sudden conversion, like St. Paul; he had to 
abandon no ancient prejudices, like St. Peter; his whole 
nature seems to have been absorbed in the contemplation 
of the Light, and the Life, and the Truth; and while others 
wandered on distant missions, it was his work to cherish 
the Mother of his Lord, to see visions, and to meditate on 

what he had heard, and lookcd upon, and 

handled, of the Word of Life. The prophe- 
cies which ushered in the new dispensation failed; the 
tongues which gave utterance to the raptures of the first 
believers ceased; the knowledge of the early Church van- 
ished before the fuller development of Christianity; but 
love still remained, and at Ephesus, which combined all the 
refinement of Greek culture with the freedom of Eastern 
thought, St. John wrote “the Gospel of the world,” re- 
solving reason into intuition, and faith into sight. 


1 John i. 1. 


CHP Pir te Ver 


THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL OF THE SYNOPTIC EVAN- 
GELISTS. 


Willst du dich am Ganzen erquicken: 
So musst du das Ganze im Kleinsten erblicken. — GOETHE. 


Hirverro it has been our object to show that the four 
Evangelists were naturally fitted to record the Life of 
Christ, under the different forms in which it met the wants 
of the early Church and is still apprehended by ourselves. 
It has been seen that the Apostolic age was marked by 
the existence of representative types of religious belief; 
that the Gospel narrative was shaped in the first instance 
by the pressure of immediate needs, and afterwards reduced 
to writing under circumstances which tended to perpetuate 
the characteristics which had been preserved by various 
classes of the first teachers and hearers; that the fourth is 
distinguished from the other three, by a difference which 
is likened to the relation of the spirit to the body, of the 
universal to the special, or again, of the testimony of the 
loved disciple to the common testimony of the Church. 
In the present Chapter we shall examine more minutely 
the mutual bearings of the synoptic Gospels. With this 
object we shall review in detail the accounts which they 
contain of the great crises of the Life of our Lord, in order 
at once to test more rigorously, and define more clearly, 
the general view which has been proposed. If it be said 
that the variations to be alleged can be explained by nat- 


310 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


ural causes, we at once admit the statement; for it has 
been shown that one of the elements of Inspiration is the 
selection of a messenger by God, who shall express truth 
in its human form with the fulness and force of his proper 
character. The differences in the Gospels may, and in 
some sense must, have arisen naturally; but in the same 
sense the whole working of Providence is natural, and the 
results of individual feeling in past time have been con- 
secrated for our instruction by the office of the Christian 
Church. 

The mode in which the different Evangelists deal with 
the history of the Incarnation and Birth of our Lord offers 
a perfect illustration of their independence and special 
characteristics. St. Mark, who records the active ministry 
of Christ, gives no details of His Infancy; and both from 
internal and external grounds there is reason to believe 
that in this respect he observed the limits of the first oral 
Gospel. The narrative of the mysteries of the Nativity 
belonged to the period of the written testimony, and not 
of the first proclamation; and St. Matthew and St. Luke 
combine to reveal as much of the great facts as helps us 
to apprehend, not the event itself; but the mode in which 
it was welcomed by those with whom God was pleased to 
work in its accomplishment. The genealogy with which 
St. Matthew opens his Gospel introduces at once its pecu- 
liar subject.'. The first words are an echo of Old Testa- 


1 The questions involved in the two 
genealogies of our Lord are so numer- 
ous and intricate that it is impossible to 
enter upon them here. The omission 
of the discussion is of little conse- 
quence, as it has been most ably con- 
ducted by Dr. Mill (The Evangelical 
Accounts of the Descent and Parentage 
of the Saviour vindicated, Cambr. 1842) 
and by Lord A. Hervey (The Genealo- 
gies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ, Cambr, 1853). A summary of 
the results which these critics have ob- 
tained is given in a little tract, The 


Genealogies in St. Matthew and St. 
Inke, London, 1856. Without aflirm- 
ing every detail in the explanations 
proposed, we may be satisfied that 
every discrepancy can be explained; 
and more than this is not to be expected 
in a case where necessarily much of 
the history is most obscure. Both gen- 
ealogies without doubt give the de- 
scent of Joseph,—the universal belief 
till the sixteenth century, —St. Mat- 
thew his Jegal descent, showing that 
our Lord was Solomon’s heir (2 Sam. 
vii. 13—17; 1 Chron. xvii. 14), though 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 811 


ment language,' and the symmetrical arrangement of the 
generations is equally significant in relation to Jewish 
history and to Jewish thought. But apart from the form, 
St. Matthew dates the Messianic hope from David and from 
Abraham, and binds Christianity with the promises of the 
ancient covenant.2 St. Luke, on the contrary, places the 
corresponding descent not before the Birth but after 
the Baptism, and represents Christ as the second Adam, 
“the Son of God.”® In the one we see a royal Infant 
born by alegal title to a glorious inheritance; and in the 
other a ministering Saviour who bears the natural sum of 
human sorrow. Even in the lines of descent which extend 
through the period common to the two genealogies there 
is a characteristic difference: St. Matthew follows the 
course of the royal inheritance of Solomon, whose natural 
lineage was closed by the childless Jehoiachim: St. Luke 
traces through Nathan the natural parentage of “the son 
of David.” In St. Matthew the Birth of Christ is con- 
nected with national glories; in St. Luke with pious hopes. 
Instead of recalling the crises of Jewish history* and the 
majesty of the typical kingdom, the Pauline Evangelist 
begins his narrative with a full recital of the personal acts 
of God’s mercy to the just and prayerful, and of His all- 
powerful grace® to the holy and believing.’ In St. Matthew 


the line of Solomon failed in Jehoia- Jue. iii. f.) For a comparison of St. 


chim (Jer. xxii. 29, 30), and St. Luke 
his natural descent, showing that he 
was lineally descended from David (2 
Sam. vii. 12; Ps. 1xxxix. 35, 36) through 
Nathan. For the details of the sub- 
ject I must refer to the works above 
quoted. 

1 Matt. i. 1, βίβλος γενέσεως. Cf. 
Gen. vy. 1. 

2 Matt. i. 1. 

3 “Cum [Lucas] Adamum Dei jilium 
yocat, significat Christum ex virgine 
ortum, secundum esse Adamum, ejus- 
gue ortum per Spiritum Sanctum non 
minus esse opus potentiz divine singu- 
lare quam Adami fuerat’’ (Wetst. ad 


Paul’s and Philo’s teaching on the sec- 
ond Adam, compare Babington, Journ. 
of Philology, i. pp. 47 ff. 

4 Matt. i. 2, 6, 11. 

5 The words χάρις, χαρίζομαι, are 
not found in St. Matthew or St. Mark. 
The former occurs in the Introduction 
of St. John, and in all the groups of 
the Epistles. 

6 Luke i. 6, 13, 28, 45. On the last 
passage Ambrose says (Jn Lue. ii. § 26), 
“ Quecunque crediderit anima et con- 
cipit et generat Dei Verbum, et opera 
ejus agnoscit. ... Si secundum carnem 
una mater est Christi; secundum fidem 
tamen omnium fructus est Christus.” 


312 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 

we read of the Incarnation as it was revealed in a dream 
to Joseph, in whom may be seen an emblem of the ancient 
people ; but in St. Luke the mystery is announced by “the 
mighty one of God”? to the Blessed Virgin, the type of 
the Christian Church? In St. Matthew the Nativity is 
ushered in by prophecy; in St. Luke it is heralded by 
those songs of triumphant faith which have been rehearsed 
in our public services for thirteen centuries; and even 
these, from hymn to hymn, seem to gather fulness and 
love: the “help of Israel” and the “horn of David” is 
welcomed as one who shall bring “joy to all the chosen 
nation,” and give “light to the Gentiles.” In St. Luke 
the shepherds,—the humble watchers of nature, — the 
despised successors of the patriarchs,?— cheered by the 
voice of angels, recognize and proclaim the praises of the 
Saviour? of the meek in heart; and the devotion first 
offered in the stable of the village inn is completed by 
the thanksgivings of the aged Simeon and Anna in the 
Temple: in St. Matthew the Magi,—the wise inquirers 


The same writer points out in a word 
the difference between Zachariah and 
the Blessed Virgin (Jn Lue. ii. § 165): 
‘‘Hee jam de negotio tractat: ille ad- 
huc de nuntio dubitat.” 

1 Gabriel: Luke i. 19. Cf. Dan. viii. 
16: 1. ale 

2 Ambr. In Luc. ii. κα 7. It has been 
argued (even by Neander, Z. J. § 14, n.) 


it may be observed that the adoption 
of foreign terms does not imply the 
introduction of a foreign belief. Cf. 
p. 78. 

It is to be noticed that the contents 
of the divine messages (Matt. i. 20, 21; 
Luke 1. 30—33) are related conversely 
to the general character of the Gos- 
pels, as a consequence of the difference 


that the different modes in which God 
is recorded to have communicated with 
man, in St. Matthew by dreams, and 
in St. Luke by angels, show the extent 
of the subjective infiuence of the writ- 
er’s mind upon the narrative. But 
surely those are right who see in this 
difference the use of various means 
adapted to the peculiar state of the 
recipient. Moreover, as St. Matthew 
recognizes the ministry of Angels 
(xxviii. 2), so St. Luke relates Visions 
(Acts x. 9—16; xvi. 9; xviii.9,10). Cf. 
Geni oxx. es) ΧΙ, - 19. χε (24 
(Dreams) — xviii. 2; xix. 1 (Angels). 
With regard te the names of the angels 


of character in those to whom they 
were addressed. The promise of Re- 
demption is made to Joseph; of a glo- 
rious kingdom to the Virgin. 


8“ Abba Garien dixit ...ne doceat 
quisquam filium suum... pastorem... 
eo quod opificium ipserum est opificium 
Jatronum” (Wetst. in Lue. ii. 8). 


4 The words σωτήρ (Cic. In Verr. ii. 
68), σωτηρία, σωτήριος, are not found 
in St. Matthew and St. Mark. They 
occur John iv. 42, 22; 1 John iy. 14. 
The progression in Luke ii. 18—20 is 
very beautiful: wonder — meditation 
— praise. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. ole 


into the mysteries of the world, —led by a strange portent 
in the sky, offer adoration’ and symbolic tribute to the 
new-born king of the Jews. In the one we read of the 
fulfilment of the Jewish idea of a royal Messiah: in the 
other, the realization of the cravings, clear or indistinct, of 
the human heart. In the one we see typified the univer- 
sal reign of Christ, and in the other His universal mercy. 
Once more, St. Matthew alone records the murder of the 
Innocents, the flight into Egypt, the cause of the final 
settlement at Nazareth; St. Luke, on the other hand, has 
preserved the details of the Purification, and adds the one 
incident which links together the Infancy and the Ministry 
of Christ in the trait of a perfect obedience and a divine 
consciousness.” In the former the hostility of earthly 
powers to the kingdom of Christ is seen to work out the 
designs of God; in the latter the law is fulfilled in the 
redemption of the Saviour from the service of the Jewish 
Temple. 

The consideration of these various details will show the 
reality of the difference in spirit and form 
between the two narratives; but the artifi- 
ciality of the contrast lessens the sense of 
their complementary character throughout. 
It is impossible to read them in succession without feeling 
that we pass from one aspect of the great central fact to 


This contrast in 
detail the sign of 
α contrast in gen- 
eral character. 


1 The word προσκυνεῖν is not applied 
by St. Luke to our Lord till after the 
Resurrection: xxiv. 52, where also it is 
probably an interpolation. Cf. p. 330, 
n. 2. 

2 A comparison of Matt. ii. 11 with 
Luke ii. 24 (Levit. xii. 8) leads us to 
place the Purification before the Visit 
of the Magi. Luke ii. 89 does not ezx- 
clude the flight into Egypt, and cer- 
tainly shows the independence of the 
Evangelists. Nor does there appear to 
be any discrepancy between Matt. ii. 
22, 28 and Luke ii. 4. The divine com- 
mand (Matt. ii. 20) would suggest a 
return to Bethlehem, in which such 


marvellous things had been wrought; 
and how can we account for Joseph’s 
selection of Nazareth as a place of 
abode so readily as by supposing that 
he was previously connected with it? 
Cf. Just. M. Dial. § 78, p. 808 D. 

As for the ἀπογραφή;, it is enough to 
say with Wetstein: ‘‘ Epocha tam cele- 
bris non potuit Lucam latere.” Cf. 
Acts v. 87 (1851). I leave this note as 
it was written eight years since. No 
one now after Zumpt’s Essay (Berlin, 
1854) can doubt that Quirinus was 
governor of Syria at the time of our 
Lord’s birth as well as ten years after- 
wards. 


27 


314 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


another, that each picture is drawn with perfect inde- 
pendence, and yet so that the separate details are exactly 
capable of harmonious adjustment. There is nothing in 
the one which could lead to the creation of the other; 
their boundary lines just meet where the character of the 
scene changes, and they must be united with care that 
their real continuity may be discovered. Yet if we regard 
the precise words of the Evangelists, without introducing 
glosses of our own, their harmony is complete. And if we 
penetrate to the ideas which they present to us as fulfilled, 
these are seen to have a permanent importance for the 
right conception of the history. For both narratives point 
yet higher in word and idea than the special limits to which 
they naturally tend, and unite in the spiritual teaching of 
St. John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God, .... and the Word 
was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” 

Justin represents Trypho as saying that “the Messiah 
would be unconscious of His own office and 
unendowed with power, till He had been 
consecrated by Elias.”1 The narrative of the 
Baptism in St. Matthew points out the 
element of truth which was contained in this belief. The 
work of the Baptist included the crowning rite of the old 
covenant, the confession of a spiritual need under an out- 
ward shape. Repentance,— the complete change of mind 
which was the fitting preparation for the kingdom of 
heaven, was consecrated in a sacramental sign, and the 
last ordinance of Judaism was in essence and form a 
prophecy of Christianity. The new Elias recognized his 
personal unworthiness to baptize Jesus “ unto repentance,” 


II, The Baptism. 


St. Matthew. 


1 Dial. c. Tryph. § 8, p. 226 ‘B: Χρισ- 
τὸς δέ εἰ καὶ γεγένηται καὶ ἔστι που, 
ἄγνωστός ἐστι καὶ οὐδὲ αὐτός πω 
ἑαυτὸν ἐπίσταται οὐδὲ ἔχει δύναμίν 
τινα μέχρις ἂν ἐλϑὼν ᾿Ηλίας χρίσῃ 
αὐτὸν καὶ φανερὸν πᾶσι ποιήσῃ. 

2 Yet even in this thereis no difficulty 


to those who have learnt from St. Paul 
the cardinal doctrine of the Redemp- 
tion (2 Cor. v. 21), and see in our Lord 
the ‘‘ ideal’? man, in the noblest sense 
of ancient philosophy, the ‘“ last 
Adam” in the language of revelation. 
In proportion as this truth is forgot- 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 315 
and yet he knew not that He was the Messiah till the 
promised sign appeared.’ Simple faith im his mission shut 
out all conjecture and suspended, it may have been, all 
hope. But the very act which he would have hindered 
brought with it the token for which he was waiting. It 
was fitting,’ alike for him as the faithful prophet of the 
Advent, and for Christ, as “subject to the Law,” to fulfil 
every rite sanctioned by God,— the perfect righteousness 
of the Jewish covenant. And thus at this point of their 
contact, the form of the New was shaped by the rules of 
the Old; and the gift of the Spirit for Christ’s work on 
earth was connected with a legal observance. 
St. Luke, on the other hand, does not dwell 
on this relation. On the contrary, he connects the Bap- 
tism of our Lord with that of “the multitude” generally, 
instead of isolating it as a fact wholly alone. He regards 
the event as it affected the Saviour among others, and not 
apart from them. In this aspect he records His prayer 
when the heavens were opened rather than the concession +} 
by which the act was prefaced. From a like reason he 
gives the heavenly voice as it was addressed to Christ: 
“ Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased ;” 
and not as addressed to John or the people at large: 
“ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” as 
the words are preserved in St. Matthew. Nor is there 
any discrepancy in this various transcription of the one’ 
divine testimony. Here, as elsewhere, the spiritual mes- νὰ 


St. Luke. 


ten, the fact itself became an offence. 
Thus in “the Gospel according to the 
Hebrews” the following passage oc- 
curred: ‘‘ Ecce mater Domini et fratres 
ejus dicebant ei: Joannes Baptista bap- 
tizat in remissionem peccatorum: ea- 
mus et baptizemur ab eo. Dixit autem 
eis: Quid peccavi, ut vadam et baptizer 
abeo? Nisi forte hoc ipsum quod dixi 
ignorantia est”? (Hieron. adv. Pelag. 
iii. 2, p. 782). 

1 John i. 88. Cf. p. 814 n. 1. 

2 Matt. iii. 15: ἄφες ἄρτι" οὕτως γὰρ 


ix, 29, (18). 


πρέπον ἐστὶν ἡμῖν πληρῶσαι πᾶσαν 
δικαιοσύνην. Πρέπειν occurs here only 
in the Gospels: there is a contrast with 
ἐγὼ Xpelay ἔχω in v. 14. 

3 Luke iii. 21: ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ 
βαπτισϑῆναι ἅπαντα τὸν λαόν, καὶ 
Ἰησοῦ βαπτισϑέντος καὶ προσευ- 
χομένου, ἀνεῳχϑῆναι τὸν οὐρανόν. 

4 The same peculiarity occurs in St. 
Luke’s account of the Transfiguration : 
CR vy. 163) ‘vitw ase ts 
(xxii. 41). 

5 Augustine (de cons, Ev. i. 2, § 14) 


316 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


sage becomes articulate only to the individual soul;’ the 

material sign is intelligible only by divine revelation. 
The Temptation necessarily followed the Baptism.’ 
The first act of the public ministry of the 


II. The Temptation. - 
Lord was to reverse the outward circum- 
Luke iv. 1. stances of the fall. In the fulness of the 
Pee Spirit He passed into the wilderness to re- 


gain the Paradise which Adam lost;* He 
was with the wild beasts, in the graphic words of St. Mark, 
who compresses into this one pregnant sentence the cen- 
tral lesson of the trial, and adds no further details of its 
course. The two other Evangelists record the same 
events with an important variation in order, and some 
slight verbal differences. The representative points of the 
temptation, for the narratives imply much which they do 
not contain, are given in each case in the order which 


says well: “ Diversitas locutionum ad- 
huc etiam utilis est, ne uno modo dic- 
tum minus intelligatur.”... In the 
account of the Transfiguration — the 
outward manifestation of Christ’s glory 
—all the Evangelists have οὗτος ἐστίν. 

1 It is, however, important to main- 
tain the objective reality of the voice 
and sign, though faith was necessary 
in order to obtain their true meaning. 
Cf. John xii. 28—30. Acts ix. 7 (ἀκού- 
οντες τῆ" φων ἢ 5); xxii.9(OvK ἤκου- 
σαν τὴν φωνήν; Dan. x. 7). Cf. 
Characteristics of Gospel Miracles, pp. 
120 ff. 

2 Cf. Hieron, ad Matt. iii. 16, ‘‘ Ape- 
riuntur autem cceli non reseratione ele- 
mentorum sed spiritualibus oculis.” 

On the traditional variations as to 
the details of the Baptism, see Just. M. 
Dial. § 88, pp. 315 D; 316 D, and Otto’s 
notes; Anger, Synopsis Houv. § 15. 

In St. Mark’s account of the Baptism 
the present participles are characteris- 
tic: ἀναβαίνων, σχιζομένους, καταβαί- 
νων. Ηδ ἃΪοπο adds ἀπὸ Ναζαρέτ (i. 9), 
while the other Evangelists mention 
our Lord’s residence there (Matt. ii. 23; 
Luke ii. 51). 


3 It is instructive to compare the dif- 
ferent phrases by which the Temptation 
is introduced: 

Matt. iv. 1: ἀνήχϑη . .- - - ὑπὸ τοῦ 
Πνεύματος πειρασϑῆναι (conducting). 

Mark i. 12: τὸ Πνεῦμα αὐτὸν ἐκβάλ- 
Aet (constraining). 

Luke iv. 1: Ἰησοῦς δὲ πλήρης Πνεύ- 
ματος ἁγίου... ἤγετο ἐν τῷ Πνεύ- 
ματι (inspiring). 

It has been noticed already that the 
Temptation precedes the narrative in 
John i. 19. 


4 Bengel, ad Marc. 1.c.: ‘* Res magna. 
Gen. i. 26...Imperium in bestias, cu- 
jus Adamus tam mature jacturam fece- 
rat, in summa jam exinanitione exer- 
cuit: quanto magis exaltatus: Ps. viii. 
8.” The forms of the Temptation have 
been often compared with the tempta- 
tions of Adam: 6. g. Hilar. ad Matt. 
iii. 5. 

5 E. g. Luke iv. 1, 2: ἤγετο εἰς τὴν 
ἔρημον ἡμέρας τεσσεράκοντα πειρα(ό- 
μενος ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου. Cf. Hom. 
Clem. xi. 85, 6 ἀποστείλας ἡμᾶς Κύ- 
ριος ἡμῶν καὶ Προφήτης ὑφηγήσατο 
ἡμῖν ὡς ὁ πονηρὸς τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέ- 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. ΘΙ 


preserves a climax from the particular position occupied 
by the writer. Taking the arrangement of St. Matthew, 
we see our Lord triumphing over the natural wants of 
humanity; refusing to tempt the sustaining power of 
Providence; and finally shrinking from a momentary alli- 
ance with the powers of darkness, even to establish the 
temporal Messianic sway, when He saw the 
glory of the kingdoms of the world. The 
first temptation occupies the same position in St. Luke. 
Personal and material cravings are from any side the first 
and simplest form of temptation; but the order of the 
two latter temptations is reversed. The preservation of 
the just relation of the Saviour to God occupies in St. 
Luke the final place which St. Matthew assigns to the vin- 
dication of Messiah’s independence of the world. In St. 
Luke the idea of a temporal empire of Christ passes more 
clearly into that of mere earthly dominion, which is dis- 
tinctly regarded as in the power and gift of Satan. The 
crowning struggle of Christ is not to repress the solicita- 
tion to antedate the outward victory of His power, but to 
maintain His human dependence upon His Father’s will. 
Before Messiah the king the temptations arise in the order 
of His relations to sense, to God, to man; before the man 
Christ Jesus, in his relations to sense, to 
man, to God. The sequence is one of idea 
and not of time. The incidents are given wholly without 
any temporal connection in St. Luke, and the language of 
St. Matthew is more definite only in appearance.’ The 
narrative, indeed, is one which may perhaps help to show 
the impossibility of applying to things spiritual and eternal 
that “phantom of succession,” in the shadow of which 
we are commonly forced to speak and act. However this 
may be, the closing words of the two narratives corres- 


Matt. iv. 8. 


1 Tim. it. δ. 


pas διαλεχϑεὶς αὐτῷ. .... Cf. Hom. 2 Luke iy. 8, καὶ εἶπεν... 5, καὶ ἄνα- 

xix. 2. γαγών... .9, καὶ ἤγαγεν... . Matt. iv. 8, 
1 Luke ἵν. 6: ἐμοὶ παραδέδοται, καὶ καὶ προσελϑών.....ὅ, τότε παραλαμ- 

ᾧ ἐὰν ϑέλω δίδωμι αὐτήν. βάνει... 8, πάλιν παραλαμβάνει... 


271 


318 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


pond to what appear to be their fundamental notions. St. 
Matthew records the ministry of angels to a heavenly 
Prince ;! St. Luke shades the brightness of the present 
triumph with a dim foreboding of the coming sufferings 
of the Saviour: then the Devil departed from Him —but 
only —for a season? 
The importance which the Jews attached to the conse- 
cration of the Messiah by Elias has been 
a ΤΊ “Ἴνα already noticed; and tradition was much 
occupied with the various other functions 
which the great prophet should discharge in the prepara- 
tion of the heavenly kingdom.’ But Elias, the represen- 
tative of the second stage in the Jewish dispensation, was 
not alone, though he occupied the most prominent place 
in the popular anticipations of a glorious future. The 
Mosaic type of the Messiah was not lost, though it had 
fallen into the back-ground; and there were some who 
argued that as the ancient lawgiver had reflected the 
divine glory from his countenance, so it should be with 
the prophet like to him whom the Lord 
should raise up in after time, for Moses was 
both a minister and an image of the Messiah. The expec- 
tation thus formed received a literal and yet a spiritual ful- 
filment. The partial and borrowed glory with which 
Moses had shone became a complete transfiguration in the 
case of Christ. That was from without; this from within. 
That was a sign to all the people; this only to the chosen 
three, to the zealous, the reverent and the loving. What 
in old times was given as a token of visible splendor was 
now changed into a source of silent faith.* But even 
under these changed relations, the correspondence of the 
two events “upon the mount” is very striking. It is im- 


Deut. xviii. 18. 


1 Matt. iv. 11, καὶ ἰδού, ἄγγελοι προ. 2 Luke iy. 18, ἀπέστη am’ αὐτοῦ ἄχρι 
σῆλϑον καὶ διηκόνουν αὐτῷ, compared Καιροῦ. Cf. John xiy. 30. 
with Mark i. 13, ἦν μετὰ τῶν ϑηρίων 3 Cf. Lightfoot, Hor. Hebr. in Matt. 
καὶ of ἄγγελοι διηκόνουν αὐτῷ. Cf. xvii. 10 (ii. p. 339). 
Luke xxii. 48. 4 Contrast Matt. xvii. 9 with Ex. 
xxxiy. 29 ff. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 319 


possible to read St. Matthew’s account of the Transfigura- 
tion without recurring to the scene in the Exodus when 
the face of Moses shone, and the children of 
Israel were afraid to come nigh to him; and 
the peculiar language which be uses coincides exactly with 
the form of Jewish tradition. He alone records the pros- 
tration of the disciples through their excessive fear, and 
the Master’s strengthening touch and cheering words, 
uttered once before upon the stormy lake.? It is with 
equal significance that St. Matthew —the Hebrew Evan- 
gelist — relates, without the implied reproof which is added 
by St. Mark and St. Luke,’ the wish of St. Peter to erect 
three tabernacles, one for Christ, and one for Moses, and 
one for Elias, — to give, as it were, a permanent standing 
place to the Jewish law and its prophetic development in 
connection with the Gospel,— when in truth they were just 
departing.* St. Luke, on the other hand, again at this new 
crisis recalls to notice the perfect manhood of the Saviour. 
He who was praying when He was specially marked out 
for His public ministry, prays also at His installation to 
the mediatorial office.® The characteristic difference 
between St. Luke and the other Evangelists 
is yet more clearly brought out by the more 
considerable peculiarities of their narratives. 


Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30. 


Matt. xvii. 9—18 ; 
Mark ia, 9-13, 


St. Matthew and St. Mark 


1 Matt. xvii. 2, καὶ ἔλαμψε τὸ πρόσω- 
Tov αὐτοῦ ws ὃ ἥλιος (cf. xiii. 48). 
“Pulgida facta fuit facies Mosis instar 
solis’? (Wetst. ad loc.). The feature 
common to all the Evangelists, ‘ His 
raiment became white,” is singularly 
illustrated by Bereshith R. (Wetst. J. 
c.): ‘ Vestes lucis, he vestes Adami 
primi.” Cf. Apoc. vii. 18 ff. The ma- 
terial imagery of St. Mark is worthy of 
notice, λευκὰ ὡς χιών, οἷα yva- 
φεὺς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οὐ δύνα- 
ται λευκᾶναι (Mark ix. 8), com- 
pared with λευκὰ ὡς τὸ φῶς (Matt. 


place in immediate connec- 


xvii. 2) and λευκός ἐξαστράπτων (Luke 
ix. 29). 

2 Matt. xvii. 6,7, μὴ φοβεῖσϑε. Cf. 
Matt. xiv. 27; xxviii. 10. 

8 Mark ix. 6, οὐ γὰρ ἤδει τί λαλήσῃ. 
Luke ix. 83, μὴ εἰδὼς ὃ λέγει. 

4 Luke ix. 83, ἐν τῷ διαχωρίζεσϑαι. 
It may be remarked that the heavenly 
voice follows on the departure of Moses 
and Elias. When they passed away 
came the words, common to all the 
Evangelists, ‘This is my beloved Son 
... Hear Him.” 

5 Luke ix. 29, ἐν τῷ προσεύχεσδαι. 


320 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


tion with the Transfiguration’ a remarkable conversa- 
tion about Elias, which serves to point out the spiritual 
connection of the new and old. The substance’ is the 
same in both; but St. Mark expresses with greater dis- 
tinctness the contrast between the traditional idea of Elias’s 
coming, and its real effects upon Messiah’s kingdom ;? 
Elias had indeed come and restored all things, but for the 
advent of a suffering Redeemer, and not for the conquest 
of a mighty prince. St. Luke omits this discourse, but he 
gives the subject of that more mysterious conversation 
when Moses and Elias “talked”* with the Lord. The 
addition is one of the greatest interest, for it connects the 
recital of Christ’s sufferings with the fullest manifestation 
of His glory. The Passion, with its triumphant issue, was 
the point to which the Law and the prophets tended, and 
thus we read that the representatives of both talked to 
Christ of the Exodus which He was about to fulfil in Jeru- 
salem. The Apostles themselves were as yet unprepared 
for the tidings. As at Gethsemane they were heavy with 
sleep, but at last when they were awake they saw Christ's 
glory, and the two men that stood with Him. 

While there are these significant variations’ in the 
details of the narrative itself, all the Evangelists relate the 
same previous conversation and the same subsequent 
miracle. The prediction of the disciples’ trials, the image 


1The question Ti οὖν, κι τ. Δ, 3 Matt. xvii. 8; Mark ix. 4 (συλλα- 


Matt. xvii. 10 (cf. Mark ix. 11) seems to 
refer to vy. 9, so that the sense is: If this 
visit of Elias must not be proclaimed 
till Thou comest in Thy power, can we 
still believe that he shall, according to 
the teaching of the scribes, prepare 
Thy way? 


2 Mark ix.12. Olshausen, rightly, I 
think, considers this to be the purport 
of the verse. Kai πῶς introduces an 
objection grounded on the resumption 
of the former clause (If it be so, how 
then...), which is resolyed by Αλλά 
(Nay, doubt not: I tell you...). 


AovyTes). 

4 Luke ix. 81, 82, ἔλεγον τὴν ἔξοδον 
αὐτοῦ ἣν ἔμελλε πληροῦν ἐν Ἱερουσα- 
Anu. The construction of λέγειν is 
unusual, but occurs again Rom. iv. 6, 
and in the earliest classical writers in 
the sense of “ recounting,” “ relating 
the details of,” ‘‘ describing.” The 
word ἔξοδος itself is less definite than 
decease, and may be best illustrated by 
the technical sense (Arist. Poet. xii.) 
“The closing scene of a Tragedy.” 

5 The additions in Mark ix. 10, Matt. 
xvii. 5 (ἐν ᾧ εὐδόκησα) are character- 
istic. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 321 


of their Lord’s triumph, and, flowing from it, the certainty 
of the disciples’ help, exhibit a glorious sequence from 
every point of view, which few will attribute to an apt 
coincidence or to a conscious design. 

It does not form any part of our plan to examine at 
length the synoptic histories of the Passion, 
or to compare them in detail with that of St. 
John.’ It will be enough for the present to notice the 
chief peculiarities of the different Evangelists, so that it 
may be seen how far they explain the aim and office of 
each, without regarding the whole progress or the minute 
relations of the different narratives. Both historically 
and doctrinally the Passion appears as the central and 
crowning point of the Gospel. Where all else is described 
in rapid outlines this is recorded with solemn particularity, 
and the characteristic traits in each account are propor- 
tionately more numerous and salient than elsewhere. 
Without asserting that these furnish a complete solution 
of the difficulties by which they are accompanied, they 
contribute at least an important element towards the 
investigation of them. They place us, in some measure, 
in the position from which the several Evangelists regarded 
the course of the whole scene, and charge the picture with 
the varied forms of busy and restless action, which the 
great master of Venice has dared to portray with vivid 
and startling reality 

The peculiarities in St. Matthew’s narrative are numer- 
ous and uniform in character. With more or 
less distinctness they all tend to show how *” “7™=™: 
the Messiahship of Jesus was attested dur- 
ing the course of events which checked the 
faith of some; and the same feeling which directed the 


V. The Passion. 


Cf. Luke xxiv. 21. 


1The chronology of the Passion “ Crucifixion” is perhaps offensive from 
Week —a subject which cannot be left the fulness of life which it exhibits, yet 
unnoticed —is examined in a note at on deeper study we feel that the Pas- 
the end of the chapter. sion must have been witnessed in some 
2 The first effect of Tintoretto’s great such form. 


oan THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


selection of the points of the narrative, influenced the 
manner of their treatment. In the form, as well as in 
many of the details, there is something of an Old Testa- 
ment complexion which completes the impression produced 
by the circumstances themselves. These are, indeed, in 
some cases singularly significant. In St. Matthew alone 
we read the last testimonies which were given to the Mes- 
siahship of the Lord by Himself and by His enemies. 
Nowhere else is there the same open and unreserved dec- 
laration of the Saviour’s majesty as in St. Matthew’s 
description of the Betrayal and the Judgment. The crises 
of apparent hopelessness are exactly those which call forth 
the most royal declarations of sovereign. power. When 
the disciples would have defended their Master at Geth- 
semane, He reminds them that He could bring to His aid 
legions of angels, but that the Scriptures must needs be 
fulfilled; that His kingdom is not to be supported or 
destroyed by the sword; that He must finish His work 
on earth before He comes in the clouds of heaven.t So 
again, when He stands before the great tribunal of the 
chosen nation, in answer to the solemn adjuration of the 
High Priest,? He claims the name and the glory of the 
Christ. Up to that moment He was silent, but then at 
last the recognition of the sacred power of the minister 
of God brought with it the words which proved to be 
the final condemnation of Judaism. Then it was that as 
Christ He was mocked by the people;* and, meanwhile, 
the remorse and death of Judas witnessed in another 
place to the fulfilment of Messianic types in the Psalms and 
Prophets.* So far Christ is seen to be openly proclaimed 


1 Matt. xxvi. 52-54. Cf. John xviii. word Χριστέ is wanting in the other 
Gospels. Compare also xxvii. 17 with 
Mark xv. 9. 


4 Matt. xxvii.8—10. The fulfilment 


“ 
7. 

Η > { x 
2 Matt. xxvi. 63, 64, ἐξορκίζω σε κατὰ 
τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος ἵνα ἡμῖν εἴπῃς 


... This clause is peculiar to St. Mat- 
thew. 

3 Matt. xxvi. 68, Προφήτευσον ἡμῖν, 
Χριστέ, τίς ἐστιν 6 παίσας oe; the 


of prophecy in the history of the Pas- 
sion is specially noticed by St. Matthew 
(xxvi.56, TOD TO δὲ ὅλον γέγονεν 
... compared with Me. xiv. 49), some- 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. ooo 


and rejected by His people; but He is also regarded under 
a peculiar relation to Gentiles. The dream of Pilate’s 
wife, and the symbolic purification! of the governor him- 
self, express the influence which the righteousness? of the 
Saviour exercised upon their imagination and judgment. 
The one carries us back to the early history of the Jews, 
when the fortunes of the nation were fashioned by the 
dreams of heathen princes,— of Abimelech, of Pharaoh, 
of Nebuchadnezzar ;* the other points forward to the ter- 
rible consummation of the curse now uttered in reckless 
unbelieft* One other testimony remains; St. Matthew 
alone tells us that the earth was shaken and the rocks rent, 
and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,’ at the 
death of Christ, whose power was felt in the depths of 
Nature and of Hades when men asked in 
mockery for the confirmation of His words: 
He said, Iam the Son of God. 

The details peculiar to St. Mark are less numerous, but 
hardly less characteristic. It has been re- 
_marked often that the account of the young 
man who fled naked proves that we have in the second 
Gospel the narrative of an eye-witness, who was nearly 


Matt. xavii. 43.” 


St. MARE. 


times directly as here and xxvi. 31 || Mc. 
xiv. 27 (Zech. xiii. 7), and sometimes 
indirectly, xxvii. 34 (Ps. lxviii. 21), 48 
(Ps. xxi. 9). The contrast between 
Matt. xxvi. 24 || Me. xiv. 21 (ὡς γέγρατ- 
ται) and Le. xxii. 22 (κατὰ τὸ ὡρισμέ- 
vov) is tull of meaning. The quotation 
in XxXvii. 35 is certainly an interpolation. 

1 Cf. Deut. xxi. 6, 7. 

2 Matt. xxvii. 19, Μηδὲν σοὶ καὶ τῷ 
δικαίῳ ἐκείνῳ... xxvii. 24, ᾿Αϑῴός εἰμι 
ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος τούτου [τοῦ δικαίου] ; 
but the last words are probably an in- 
terpolation. 

8 Gen. xx. 8; Χ]]. 25; Dan. ii. 3. 

4 Matt. xxvii. 25, τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ed’ 
ἡμᾶς καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ τέκνα seit 

5 Hilar. ad Matt. xxvii. 51, 52: “ Mo- 
vetur terra: capax enim ah are 
esse non poterat. Petre scisse sunt: 


omnia enim tum yalida et fortia pene- 
trans Dei Verbum et potestas xterne 
virtutis irruperat. Ht monumenta 
aperta sunt: erant enim mortis claustra 
reserata. Zt multa corpora sanctorum 
dormientum surrexerunt: illuminans 
enim mortis tenebras et infernorum 
obscura collustrans, in Sanctorum ad 
presens conspicatorum resurrectione 
mortis ipsius spolia detrahebat.”? The 
use of the phrase of ἅγιοι is remarka- 
ble, which does not occur elsewhere 
absolutely in the New Testament, ex- 
cept of Christians, and not at all in the 
Gospels: Acts ix. 18, 32, 41; xxvi. 10; 
Rom. xii. 13, ete.; Apoc. xi. 18; xviii. 
20. And yet more, the form of expres- 
sion, πολλὰ “σώματα τῶν ἁγίων 
ἐὸν ἠγέρϑησαν, cannot be overlooked 
in the interpretation of the passage. 


924 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


concerned in an incident which would have seemed trivial 
to others." One or two other minute points lead to the 
same conclusion. In the account of the testimony of “ the 
false witnesses,” St. Mark appears to have preserved words 
of the Lord which do not occur in the other Evangelists ;? 
and he alone notices the disagreement of their testimony.’ 
In the same way he characterizes Simon the Cyrenian as 
the father of Alexander and Rufus,’ and in him alone we 
read that Pilate investigated the reality of the death of 
Christ.’ 

The special details by which the narrative of St. Luke 
is distinguished are more obviously marked 
by a common character, and seem in some 
measure as a complement to those of St. Matthew. For 
while the peculiar traits preserved by St. Matthew exhibit 
in various aspects the Messianic dignity of the Lord, those 
preserved by St. Luke seem rather to present notices of 


St. LUKE. 


1 Mark xiv. 51,52. Cf. p. 287, . 1. tact with the Gospel of St. John. The 
difference between the recorded words 
of our Lord and the report of the wit- 
nesses is striking: J can destroy (Matt. 
xxvi. 61, δύναμαι καταλῦσαι); 1 will 
destroy (Mark xiv. 58, καταλύσω), as 
compared with Destroy ...and I will 

8 Mark xiy. οὐδὲ οὕτως ton ἦν 7 raise (John ii. 19, Avoate... καὶ 
μαρτυρία αὐτῶν. We have inthe tes- ἐγερῶ). 
timony of the witnesses a point of con- 4 Mark xv. 21. 

5 Mark xy. 44, 45. The quotation in xv. 28 is certainly an interpolation. 

The details common to St. Matthew and St. Mark which are not found in St. 
Luke are numerous: 

Matt. xxvi. 81,32. Mark xiv. 27,28. The future foretold. 


2 Mark xiv. 58, Tov vaby τοῦτον τὸν 
χειροποίητον... ἄλλον axet- 
ροποίητον. The words do not oc- 
cur elsewhere in the Gospels; but com- 
pare Hebr. ix. 11, 24; 2 Cor. v. 1. 


-- — 87,88. — π-- 88,34. The selection of Peter, James, and 
- Jobn. 

— — 40—465. — — 87—41. The three warnings. 

-- -- 48. --- — 44. The sign of the kiss. 

- — 59—66. — — 55—64. The false witness. 

— xxvii. 12—14. — xy. 4,5. The Lord’s silence before Pilate. 
Cf. John xix. 9. 

-- — 26. -- — 10. The scourging. Cf. John xix. 1. 

-- — 2-81. — — 16—20. The mockery of the soldiers with 
the reed (Matt.) and crown. 

-- -- 34. --- — 28. The deadening draught. 

— — 89,40. — — 29,80. The mockery of the passers-by. Cf. 


Luke xxiii. 35. 
-- — 46—49. — — 984—386. The cry ofagony. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 325 


human sympathy, points of contact with common life, evi- 
dences of a perfect manhood. This is more evident if 
account is taken of the details common to the two other 
Evangelists which St. Luke omits; and, though it may 
appear fanciful to insist on every difference as an example 
of a difference of scope (chiefly through the faults in our 
apprehension and representation of them), yet the total 
effect of contrast and combined effect cannot be doubted. 
St. Luke alone has preserved the question which showed 
the devotion of the disciples to their Lord, when the bold- 
ness of one raised the sword in His defence :" he alone re- 
cords the thrice repeated declaration of Pilate, that “he 
found no fault in Him;”? and notices the accusation for 
civil crimes,* and the examination before Herod.*| In him 
we read of the angel which “strengthened” the Lord’s 
human nature at the Agony;* of “an hour of His enemies 
and of the power of darkness,” when their malice could 
find full scope; ὃ of that look which recalled to St. Peter the 
greatness of his fall;’ of the words in which He resigned 
His Spirit to His Father The last word of mercy, in 
which He removed the injury which had been wrought by 
mistaken zeal;° the last word of warning, in which He 
turned the thoughts of mourners to the personal conse- 
quences of the deed which moved their compassion ;" the 


1 Luke xxii. 49, Ἰδόντες δὲ of περὶ 
αὐτὸν τὸ ἐσόμενον εἶπαν Κύριε, εἰ 
πατάξομεν ἐν μαχαίρᾳ. The words 
seem to exclude any idea but that of 
sacrifice in a desperate cause. 

2 Luke xxiii. 4, 14, 22. 

8 Luke xxiii. 2, .... διαστρέφοντα 
τὸ ἔϑνος ἡμῶν καὶ κωλύοντα φόρους 
Καίσαρι διδόναι... 

4 Ambros. ad Luc. xxiii. 4—12. “In 
typo etiam Herodis atque Pilati, qui 
amici ex inimicis facti sunt per Jesum 
Christum, plebis Israel populique gen- 
tilis figura, quod per Domini passionem 
utriusque sit futura concoreia” ... 

5 Luke xnii. 48, 44. The extent and 
character of the variations in tle evi- 


dence as to the authenticity of this pas- 
sage point (like similar variations in 
other parts of the Gospel) to a double 
recension of the Gospel, proceeding, as 
it appears, from the Evangelist himself. 

6 Luke xnii. 53, αὕτη ὑμῶν ἐστὶν ἡ 
ὥρα καὶ ἣ ἐξουσία τοῦ σκότους. CF. 
iv. 18, 5 διάβολος ἀπέστη ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ 
ἄχρι καιροῦ. 

7 Luke xxii. 61, καὶ στραφεὶς ὁ Κύ- 
ριος ἐνέβλεψεν τῷ Πέτρῳ. ... 

8 Luke xxiii. 46, Πάτερ, εἰς χεῖράς 
σου παρατίϑεμαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου. The 
echo of the words still lingers in the 
phrase of St. Peter: 1 Pet. iy. 19. 

9 Luke xxii. 51. 

10 Luke xxiii. 27—31. 


28 


526 


THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


last prayer of infinite love, in which He pleaded for those 
who reviled and slew Him;! the last act of sovereign 


9 


grace in which He spoke a blessing from the cross ;? are all 


recorded alone by the companion of St. Paul. 


In St. Mat- 


thew we saw that the dead did homage to the crucified 
Messiah: in St. Luke® all the multitudes that came together, 
and saw the things which were done, returned, beating their 


breasts for sorrow. 


1 Luke xxiii. 84. Πάτερ, ἄφες ad- 
τοῖς" ov γὰρ οἴδασιν τί ποιοῦσιν. These 
words reappear in the narrative of the 
martyrdom of James, “the brother of 
the Lord,” preserved by Eusebius, 7. 
E. ii 28, Παρακαλῶ Κύριε, Θεέ, Πάτερ, 
ἄφες αὐτοῖς" οὐ γὰρ οἴδασι τί ποιοῦ- 
σιν. 

2 Luke xxiii. 43. 

3 Luke xniii. 48. 

4 It may not be out of place to notice 
one apparent discrepancy in the ac- 
counts of the Passion on which the 
opponents of the literal accuracy of the 
Evangelists insist with the greatest con- 
fidence. It is said that each of the four 
Evangelists gives the inscription on the 
cross in different words. The state- 
ment is certainly so far true that each 
Evangelist gives a phrase which is not 
entirely coincident with that given by 
any one of the others, but a close ex- 
amination of the narratives furnishes 
no sufficient reason for supposing that 
all proposed to give the same or the 
entire inscription. St. John, indeed, 
uses such terms as to Jeave no doubt as 
to his record: ἔγραφεν δὲ καὶ τίτλον 
ὁ Πιλᾶτος ... ἦν δὲ γεγραμμένον... 
Ἰησοῦς 5 Ναζωραῖος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν 
Ιουδαίων (John xix. 19). These Greek 
words then we may be assured were 
certainly placed upon the cross; but if 
we compare the language of St. John 
with that of St. Mark, it will be obvi- 
ous that St. Mark only designs to give 
the words which contained the point of 
the accusation,— the alleged usurpation 
of royal dignity, — καὶ ἦν ἡ ἐπι- 


γραφὴ τῆς αἰτίας αὐτοῦ ἐπι- 
γεγραμμένη. Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰου- 
δαίων (Mark xv. 26); and these words 
which contain the charge are common 
to all the Evangelists. The language 
of St. Matthew and St. Luke again, 
though this might be disputed, seems 
to imply that they have preserved re- 
spectively the two remaining forms of 
the trilingual inscription: ἐπέϑηκαν 
see. THY αἰτίαν αὐτοῦ γεγραμμένην" 
Οὗτός ἐστιν ᾿Ιησοῦς ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν 
Ιουδαίων (Matt. xxvii. 87) --- ἦν δὲ καὶ 
ἐπιγραφὴ ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ: ‘O βασιλεὺς τῶν 
᾿Ιουδαίων οὗτος (Luke xxiii. 88). If 
this natural conjecture be admitted, 
the difference is a proof of complete- 
ness, and not of discrepancy. St. Mat- 
thew would certainly preserve the Ie- 
brew form in his original Gospel; and 
the title in St. Luke as given in Cod, 
Corb., *‘ Rex Judzorum hic est,’’ seems 
like the scornful turn of the Latin title. 
However this may be, there is at least 
no possibility of showing any incon- 
sistency on the strictly literal interpre- 
tation of the words of the Evangelist. 

The difference between John xix. 14 
(ἕκτη) and Mark xy. 25 (τρίτη. Cf. 
xy. 83; Matt. xxvii. 45; Luke xxiii. 44) 
seems clearly to point to a different 
mode of reckoning (Cf. John xviii. 28. 
Ewald, Christus, 217). Again, no one 
would find a contradiction in the fol- 
lowing sentence: βαστάζων τὸν σταυ- 
ρὸν ἐξῆλϑεν.. .. ἐξερχόμενοι δὲ εὗρον 
Σίμωνα: τοῦτον ἠγγάρευσαν ἵνα ἄρῃ 
τὸν σταυρόν (John xix 17: τ΄“ 
XxXvii. 82). 


= OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 327 


The various narratives of the Resurrection place the 
fragmentariness of the Gospel in the clearest 
light. They contain difficulties which it is 
impossible to explain with certainty, but 
there is no less an intelligible fitness and purpose in the 
details peculiar to each account. The existence of difli- 
culties in brief records of such a crisis is no more than a 
natural consequence of its character. The events of the 
first great Easter morning were evidently so rapid in their 
sequence and so startling in their lessons, that a complete 
history would have been impossible.t| Even in ordinary 
circumstances the effects produced by the same outward 
phenomena, and the impressions which they convey to dif- 
ferent persons in moments of great excitement, are so 
various, that we are in some measure prepared for appar- 
ent discrepancies in the recital of the facts which accom- 
panied what was the new birth of believers no less than of 
the Saviour. At the same time, we know so little of the 
laws of the spiritual world, and of the conditions under 
which beings of another order are revealed to men, that it 
is idle to urge as a final inconsistency the diversity of vis- 
ions which, while truly objective, may still have depended, 
in a manner which may be faintly conceived, on the charae- 
ter of the witnesses to whom they were given. And be- 
sides all this, there are so many tokens of unrecorded facts 
in the brief summaries which are preserved, that no argu- 
ment can be based upon apparent discrepancies sufficient 
to prove the existence of absolute error.2, Where the evi- 


VIL The Resur- 
rection. 


1Tn this sense the closing words of 
St. John’s Gospel, which are passed 
over too often as a mere hyperbole, 
contain a truth, which, as it holds ina 
lower sense of the details of every hu- 
man life, is absolutely true of the de- 
tails of the Perfeet Life—@riva ἐὰν 
γράφηται kad ἕν, οὐδὲ αὐτὸν οἶμαι τὸν 
κόσμον χωρῆσαι τὰ γραφόμενα βιβλία. 
This perception of the infinity of life 
makes the historian a true poet. 


2 For instance, from John xx. 7, it 
appears that Mary Magdalene did not 
enter the sepulchre at the first visit; 
and this fact gives a clew to the expla- 
nation of the Angelic Visions. In Matt. 
Xxviii. 16 (οὗ ἐτάξατο αὐτοῖς) there is 
a reference to other revelations of the 
Lord to the Apostles than that which 
the Evangelist has recorded. St. Luke 
(xxiv. 84) notices incidentally an ap- 
pearance to St. Peter which he has not 


328 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


dence is confessedly imperfect, it may be wise to hesitate, 
but it is presumptuous to condemn; and the possibility 
of reconciliation in the case of partial and independent 
narratives is all that the student of the Gospels requires. 
When it is seen that this possibility is further combined 
with the existence of a special character in the separate 
accounts, the whole question will be presented in a truer 
and more instructive form. We shall learn to acquiesce in 
the existence of diversities which we cannot finally solve, 
when we find enough recorded to satisfy the individual 
designs of the Evangelists and the permanent needs of 
Christians. 

It is necessary to repeat these obvious remarks, because 
the records of the Resurrection have given 
occasion to some of the worst examples of 
that kind of criticism from which the other 
parts of the Gospels have suffered, though not in an equal 
degree. It is tacitly assamed that we are in possession 
of all the circumstances of the event, and thus, on the 
one hand, differences are urged as fatal, and on the other, 
elaborate attempts are made to show that the details 
given can be forced into the semblance of a complete and 
connected narrative. The true critic will pause before he 
admits either extreme. He will not expect to find in each 
Gospel, nor yet in the combination of them, a full and cir- 
cumstantial record of a mere fact of common history ; and 
he will be equally little inclined to bind down the possible 
solutions of the difficulties introduced by variations and 
omissions to one definite form. He will rather acknowl- 
edge the characteristics of the truth in narratives incom- 


The true aspect 
of the narratives. 


detailed; and the same appearance pearance to James, which is elsewhere 


seems to be referred to by St. Paul 
(1 Cor. xv. 5). St. Paul (1 Cor. xv. 6) 
helps us to distinguish the appearance 
to the gathered church in Galilee from 
the last appearance to the Apostles 
(Luke xxiv. 44 ff.), with which it has 
been confounded; and notices an ap- 


only recorded in apocryphal traditions. 
If any further testimony to the multi- 
plicity and variety of the revelations 
of the Risen Lord is required, it is 
given in the widest terms by St. Luke 
in Acts i 8 (ἐν πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις, 
ὀπτανόμενοϑ). 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 329 


plete as historical relations, and yet most perfect as lessons 
of divine truth embodied in representative facts. 

Regarding the recorded details of the Resurrection from 
this point of view, we can dismiss without 

: ᾿ Σ 3 As distinct wholes, 

any minute inquiry the various schemes ana not fragments 
which have been proposed for bringing them, ee ee 
as they stand at present, into one connected 
narrative. Whether the harmonist has recourse to a mul- 
tiplication of similiar incidents, or, with a truer insight 
into the style of the Scriptures, sees in the several accounts 
perspective views, as it were, in which several incidents 
are naturally grouped together,' we may accept the gen- 
eral conclusion without insisting on the several steps by 
which it is reached. That will rather be an object of 
study, to regard each separate account as conveying a dis- 
tinct image of the signs and results of Christ’s victory. 
The fullest and truest view of the whole will then natur- 
ally follow. The most general will result from the most 
particular; the final impression, from a combination of 
wholes and not from a mosaic of fragments. 

The narrative of St. Matthew is, as is commonly the 
case, the least minute. The great features of 
the history are traced with bold outline. 
Faith and unbelief, fear and joy, are seen together in the 
closest contrast; and over all is the light of a glorious 
majesty abiding “even unto the end.” Heaven and earth 
are combined in one wide view;” Messiah reigns, and the 
opposition of His enemies is powerless. The visit of the 
women, the angelic ministry, a source of deadly terror to 
the guards, of “great joy” to the believing, the appear- 
ance of the Lord, the falsehood of the watch, the division 
among the disciples, the last charge, combine to form a 
noble picture, yet so as to convey no impression of a com- 
plete narrative. But the peculiar traits in this brief sum- 


St. MATTHEW. 


1 This form of explanation is well fol- Gesch.), though with his usual errors 
lowed out by Ebrard (Krit. d. Evang. in taste. 
2 Matt. xxviii. 18. 
28* 


330 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


mary are both numerous and important. St. Matthew 
alone notices the outward glory of the Resurrection, the 
earthquake, the sensible ministry of the divine messenger, 
the watch of enemies replaced by the guarding angel. 
The vigilance of Roman soldiery and the authority of 
priestly power are seen to be unable to check the might of 
the new faith." The majesty of the triumphant Messiah 
is shown again by a fact which St. Matthew has preserved 
as to the feelings of His disciples. He alone notices the 
humble adoration of the risen Lord before His Ascension,” 
and, as if with jealous care, traces to its origin the calumny 
“currently reported” among the Jews “to 
this day.” St. Mark mentions the command 
to the disciples to go to Galilee, but St. Matthew alone 
relates the final charge to the assembly of believers, which 
was given in solemn majesty, and it may be on the very 
mountain on which Christ first taught them. Thus it was 
foreshown that Jerusalem was no longer to remain the 
Holy City, the final centre of the Church. The “ scattered 
flock” were again gathered together by their Master in 
the despised country from which they had first followed 
Him.* The world-wide extent of His king- 
dom is at once proclaimed. Their commis- 
sion extended “to all the nations;” and the highest 
mystery of the faith is conveyed in the words which are 
the passport into the Christian community. 

The narrative of St. Mark is attended by peculiar difii- 
culties. The original text, from whatever 
cause it may have happened, terminated ab- 
ruptly after the account of the angelic vision. The his- 


Matt. xxviii. 11 ff. 


Natt. xxviii. 19, 20. 


Sr. Mark. 


5 Mark xvi. 8, ἐφοβοῦντο γάρ. It 
is vain to speculate on the causes of 
this abrupt close. The evidence in fa- 
vor of the remaining verses seems to 
establish their canonicity, though they 


1 Lange, Leben Jesu. 

2 Matt. xxviii. 9,17. Contrast Mark 
xv. 19. In Luke xxiv. 52 the words 
προσκυνήσαντες αὐτὸν are very doubt- 
ful. 


3 Matt, xxviii. 16, τὸ ὄρος οὗ ἐτάξατο 
αὐτοῖς. 

4 Matt. xxvi. 81, 82 (προάξω ὑμᾶς εἰς 
τὴν Γαλιλαίαν). 


cannot be regarded as part of the orig- 
inal narrative of St. Mark. ‘There is 
no inconsistency between Mark xvi. 13 
and Luke xxiy. 34, 85, but rather a 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 9351 


tory of the revelations of the Lord Himself was added at 
another time and probably by another hand. Yet in both 
parts of the record one common feature may be noticed, 
which seems to present the peculiar characteristic of the 
Gospel. The disciples hesitate before they accept the fact 
which surpassed their hope. There is doubt before there 
is faith. Thus, as St. Mark preserves an especial assurance 
of the reality of Christ’s death, so he confirms most 
strongly the reality of His resurrection. His narrative 
shows that the witnesses were not mere enthusiasts who 
believed what they wished to be true. The 
women “told nothing to any man” when 
they had first seen the angelic vision. The apostles only 
yielded finally to the reproof of their Master 
when they had rejected in their bitter mourn- 
ing the testimony of those to whom He had appeared. 
This gradual progress to faith exhibits that outward side 
of the history which is further illustrated by the details 
which the Evangelist has preserved from the Lord’s last 
charge. The promises of miraculous power 
assume in this a speciality and distinctness 
to which there is elsewhere no parallel; and the brief 
clause in which the progress of the Church and the work- 
ing of its ministers is described, leads the reader to see 
on earth the present power of that mighty Saviour, who 
in this Gospel only is described as “seated on the right 
hand of God.”?! 

St. Luke presents many of the same details as St. Mark, 
but at a greater length and apparently with 
a different object. He does not dwell το 
directly on the majesty of the Resurrection, as St. Mat- 
thew, nor on the simple fact of it, as St. Mark, but rather 
connects it with the Passion, and unfolds the spiritual 
necessity by which suffering and victory were united. 


Mark xvi, 8. 


Mark xvi. 1. 


Mark xvi. 17, 18. 


most true trait of nature: cf. Luke 1 Mark xvi. 19. Cf. Matt. xxvi. 64; 
xxiv. 87. Nor is there any connection Luke xxii. 69; (Acts vii. 55, 56); Col. 
of time in xvi. 15, καὶ εἶπεν, κ. τ. A. iii. 1; Hebr. x. 12. 


332 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


Thus it is that he records that part of the angelic mes- 
sage in which the death and rising again 
of Christ were traced in His own words. 
And the Lord Himself, whether he talks with the two 
disciples or with the eleven, shows the “necessity” of 
those events by which their faith was shaken. In this 
connection the eucharistic meal at Emmaus gains a new 
meaning. That which was before clearly connected at 
least with the observances of the Jewish ritual is now 
separated from all legal observances. The “ disappear- 
ance” of the Lord is, as it were, a preparation for His 
unseen presence ; and at the same time the revelation to 
the eleven shows that He raised with Him from the grave, 
and up to heaven, al! that belongs to the perfection of 
man’s nature.” The last view which St. Luke gives of the 
office of the risen Saviour corresponds with the earlier 
traits in which he shows His relation to mankind. In St. 
Matthew He is seen as clothed “ with all power in heaven 
and on earth,.... present with the disciples to the end of 
the age.” In St. Mark He is raised to heaven, to a throne 
of sovereign power, as One to whom nature does homage. 
In St. Luke He is the High Priest in whose 
name repentance and remission of sins is to 
be proclaimed to all nations, —the Mediator who sends 
forth to men the promise of His Father. 

There is yet another aspect in which the Resurrection 
is presented in the Gospels which can only 
be indicated now, though it presents lessons 
of marvellous fulness. St. John traces its effects, not on a 
church, nor on an active ministry, nor on mankind at 
large, but on individuals. The picture which he draws 
can be completed by traits taken from the other Evange- 
lists; and if this be done, there is probably nothing else 
in the Gospels which gives the same impression of sim- 


Luke xxiv.7. 


Luke xxiv. 47, 48. 


Sr. Joun. 


1 Luke xxiv. 26, οὐχὶ ταῦτα ἔδει ma- 2 Luke xxiy. 36 ff. (σάρκα καὶ ὃσ- 
Sev; v. 44, δεῖ πληρωδῆναι τὰ ye- Téa). 
γραμμένα. Cf. xxiv. 7. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 999 


plicity and comprehensiveness, of independence and _har- 
mony, of perfect truthfulness and absolute wisdom. The 
Resurrection, then as now, is proved to be the touchstone 
of character. In the presence of this great fact the 
thoughts of many hearts are revealed. Per- 
sonal devotion, even if mistaken and limited, 
is received with a welcome of joy.!. Hope, which had 
sunk by a natural and violent reaction even 
to despair, is cheered by a word of peace, 
and strengthened to utter the highest confession of faith. 
Silent love looks and believes.? To the eye 
of the beloved disciple the Lord was known 
when hidden from others; and while some hastened to 
embrace or worship Him, it was his part to wait in 
patience, and in this sense also to tarry till the Lord came. 
However incomplete the comparison between parallel 
evangelic¢ narratives which has been made in ΕΡΎΠΙΕ ΤῸ 
this chapter may be in some of its details, it characteristic αὐγ- 
seems impossible not to feel that it throws a tee 
striking light upon the individuality, the independence, 
and the inspiration of the Gospels. A more complete 
examination, which should take account of every shade of 
difference, such as could only be apprehended by personal 
study, would fill up an outline which is too 
plain to be easily mistaken. The character- 
istic traits which have been noticed appear in the records 
of a series of incidents which have been selected for their 
intrinsic importance, and not arbitrarily. They are so 
subtle that no one could attribute them to design; and 
yet so important that they convey their peculiar effect to 
the narratives. Without any constant uniformity they 
converge towards one point; and even when their con- 
nection is least apparent, they present a general impression 


John xx. 15, 16. 


John xx. 24, ἢ. 


John xxi. 7, 


The Individuality, 


1 Matt. xxviii. 9, Χαίρετε. Here σεν. Cf. Luke xxiv. 12, which is a very 
only in the Gospels. ancient gloss, if not a part of the orig- 

2 John xx. 26, 28. inal text. 

8 John xx. 8, καὶ εἶδεν καὶ ἐπίστευ- 


334 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


of a definite law to which they are subject. Diversity of 
detail is seen to exist without contrariety; and the exhi- 
bition of a spiritual purpose with the preservation of literal 
accuracy. 

Individuality is a sign of independence. The more 
exactly any one compares parallel passages 
of the Gospels the more certainly he will 
feel that their likenesses are to be referred to the use of a 
common source, and not to the immediate influence of one 
Gospel upon another. The general form is evidently 
derived from some one original type; the special elabora- 
tion of it is due to personal knowledge and apprehension 
of the events included in the fundamental cycle of teach- 
ing. The evidence of the evangelists is thus one and yet 
independent. They do not reproduce one uniform history ; 
but give distinct histories according to the outlines of a 
comprehensive and common plan. 

We may proceed yet one step further. Individuality 

and independence, when presented in such a 
Cee. |’ form as to exhibit complementary spiritual 

aspects of the same facts, are signs of inspi- 
ration. From one side it is possible to refer the phe- 
nomena which they offer to the mental characteristics of 
the Evangelists; but it has been seen that the human 
element is of the essence of inspiration. The Bible is 
divine Jecause it is human. The Holy Spirit speaks 
through men as they are, and the fulness of their proper 
character is the medium for conveying the fulness of the 
truth. It follows, then, that in proportion as it can be 
shown that there is a distinctness of purpose, though most 
free from the marks of conscious design, in the several 
Gospels,—in proportion that there can be shown to exist 
in them significant differences consistent with absolute 
truth, there is a sure pledge of their plenary inspiration in 
the truest and noblest sense of the words. Nothing less 
than the constant presence of the Holy Spirit, if we can 
in any way apprehend the method of His working, could 


independence, and 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 335 


preserve perfect truthfulness with remarkable variations; a 
perfect plan with childly simplicity ; an unbroken spiritual 
concord in independent histories. 


NOTE TO PAGE 321. 
ON THE DAY OF THE CRUCIFIXION. 


The difficulties connected with the chronology of the Paschal weck are 
acknowledged on all hands to be very considerable, and ti ee 
the various solutions which have been proposed have gence, 
tended to perplex the question still more by introducing (α) The Crucifix 
uncertainty into the interpretation of the terms involved. nee isan 
The examination of these difficulties may be divided into 
two distinct parts, —the determination (1) of the day of the month, and 
(2) of the day of the week, on which the Lord suffered. Of these the 
first includes the alleged discrepancy between the Synoptists and St. John 
as to the time and character of the Last Supper; the second, on the other 
hand, is chiefly of interest for the interpretation of the Gospels. The two 
questions are quite independent, and will be considered separately. 

I. All the Evangelists agree as to the name of the day of the Crucifixion ; 
and in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, it is entirely unreason- 
able to suppose that the name is used in more than one sense. The day 
was The Preparation (ἣ παρασκευή), or rather A Preparation (παρασκευή). 

Matt. xxvii. 62, τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον ἥτις ἐστὶν μετὰ Thy παρασκευήν. 

Mark xy. 42, ἐπεὶ ἦν παρασκευή, ὅ ἐστιν προσάββατον. 

Luke xxiii. 54, καὶ ἡμέρα ἣν παρασκευῆς καὶ σάββατον ἐπέφωσκεν. 

John xix. 31, ἐπεὶ παρασκευὴ ἦν (cf. ν. 42); v. 14, ἦν δὲ παρασκευὴ τοῦ 
πάσχα. ; 

What then was the Parasceue— The Preparation? There can be no 
doubt that in early Christian writers, as in modern Greek, this was the 
name of Friday (Clem. Alex. Str. vii. p. 877, § 75, 7 Παρασκευή ... ἐπιφη- 
μίζεται.... ἡ ᾿Αφροδίτης. Cf. Polyc. Mart. 7,77 Παρασκευῇ δείπνου ὥρα 
Tertull. De Jejun. 14). Friday was indeed the preparation for the weekly 
Sabbath, and as such it was natural that the name should be used for it 
so commonly that at last it became the proper name of the day.!_ But the 
name and character of Sabbath was not confined to the weekly day of 
rest. There were other festival-days which had the same Sabbatic charac- 
ter, and foremost among them the first day of the feast of unleavened 


. . a / 
1The word appears, as it were,ina ἐγγύας μὴ ὁμολογεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐν σάβ- 
trausition-state ina decree of Augustus βασιν, ἢ τῇ mpd ταύτης παρασκευῇ 
=a > , 
preserved by Josephus: Ant, xvi. 6,2, ἀπὸ ὥρας ἐνάτη -. 


990 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


bread (Lev. xxiii. 15, τὰ σάββατα. Cf. v. 11, Hebr. vv. 24, 39); and thus 
the day before these festival-sabbaths would likewise include a Preparation, 
in the same way as that before the weekly sabbaths. All festivals did not 
partake in this Sabbatic character, and consequently the enumeration of 
days in Judith (viii. 6, evjorevey... χωρὶς προσαββάτων καὶ σαββάτων, καὶ 
προνουμηνιῶν καὶ νουμηνιῶν καὶ ἑορτῶν καὶ χαρμοσυνῶν οἴκου Ἰσραήλ) proves 
nothing as to the exclusive use of the word προσάββατον, by which St. 
Mark explains παρασκευή, for the weekly Preparation.1 

If it is allowed that there is nothing in the Synoptic Gospels, so far as 
the title of the day is concerned, which determines 
whether it is to be understood of the weekly or of the 
festival preparation, St. John seems to leave no real room 
for doubt. In point of grammar, παρασκενή τοῦ πάσχα 
—the Preparation of the Passover — might mean the Fri- 
day in the Paschal week ; but it seems incredible, if we take into considera- 
tion the significance of St. John’s dates, that the Evangelist should reckon 
by the week and not by the symbolic feast, of which he is recording the 
fulfilment.2 In connection with the whole narrative, “‘the Preparation of 
the Passover” cannot mean anything but “the Preparation for the Passo- 
ver,” or in other words the fourteenth Nisan, the eve of the Paschal sup- 
per, which was eaten at the beginning of the fifteenth Nisan, according to 
the Jewish reckoning, ἡ. e., after sunset of the fourteenth, according to 
our own.? 

The dates furnished by the Synoptists fall in with this interpretation. 
On “‘ the first day of unleavened bread,” which is identi- 
fied with the fourteenth of Nisan by the significant addi- 
tion, ‘‘ When they sacrificed the Paschal-offering”’ (Mark 
xiv. 12, TH πρώτῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν ἀζύμων ὅτε Td πάσχα ἔϑυον; 


(b) The Prepa- 
ration day fixed by 
St. John as the Eve 
of the Passover. 


(c) The Synoptic 
dates reconcilable 
with this cenclu- 
sion. 


Luke xxii. 7,7 7m. τ. aG ἐν 7 ἔδει τὸ πάσχα ϑύεσϑαι; 
Matt. xxvi. 87, τῇ δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν aC), the disciples inquired “where they 
should prepare the Passover.”? Then follow in unbroken succession the 
Last Supper (Matt. xxvi. 20; Mark xiv. 17, ὀψίας γενομένης; Luke xxii. 
14, ὅτε ἐγένετο 7 Spa), the departure to Gethsemane (Matt. xxvi. 31; Mark 
xiv. 27, ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ταὐτῃ), the arrest, the examination (Matt. xxvi. 74, 
and parallels, ἀλέκτωρ ἐφώνησεν), the deliberation (Matt. xxvi. 1, πρωΐας 
γενομένη5), and the various steps of the Passion. Now it appears that the 


1 M. Lutteroth, in an ingenious essay 
(Le Jour de la Préparation, Paris, 1855), 
has endeavored to identify the Prepa- 
ration with the tenth of Nisan, the day 
on which the offering was set apart. 
Luke xxii. 7, seems to be decisive 
against this supposition, and M. Lut- 
teroth appears to feel the difliculty 
which the most forced interpretation is 
insufficient to remove. 

2 This will be felt at once if we trans- 


late John xix, 42, because of the Friday 
of the Jews (Bleek, Beit7. 1117). 


8 In conformity with this the Jewish 
tradition represents ‘‘the Eve of the 
Passover?’ as the time of the Crucifix- 
ion (Bleek, Beitr. 148). The connection 
between the two uses of παρασκευὴ is 
well seen in the connection of 2%, the 
eve of a feast, and SMAANY Friday 
(Buxt. Lex. p. 1659). 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 891 
fourteenth was kept at ἃ later time as a day of rest especially in Galilee 
(Mishna, Pesach. iy. 1, 5; ap. Bleek, Betir., 1221), that is probably the 
natural day, excluding the evening. This fact supports the idea, which is 
probable in itself, that the question of the disciples was asked immediately 
upon the sunset of the thirteenth. The Preparation is evidently contem- 
plated as foreseen by the owner of the house, and need not have occupied 
much time.2 The evening of the Supper would thus be as St. John repre- 
sents it, the evening at the beginning of the fourteenth. The same day 
after sunrise next morning is rightly described as a Preparation-day, — 
“the Preparation of the Passover,” though the Preparation, in the styict- 
est sense of the term, was limited to the last three hours, from “ the ninth 
hour.” 

This view of the time of the Last Supper is supported by a variety of 
indirect arguments, common to St. John and the Synop- 
tists, Which appear to be so cogent in themselves that 
many critics who affirm the inconsistency of the two 
forms of the narrative, assume that the original basis of the Synoptic 
Gospels presented the same chronology as St. John, and that these coin- 
cidences spring from the partial preservation of the first text. 

’ But before noticing these less distinct intimations of the date, there are 
yet two other passages of St. John which seem to leave 
no room to doubt his meaning, if it be not clear already. 
On the morning of the day of the crucifixion the Jews, 
as he writes, would not enter the judgment-hall of Pilate, 
“that they may eat the Passover” (John xix. 28, ἵνα φά- 
γωσι τὸ πάσχα).3 Nothing but the determination to adapt these words to 
a theory could suggest the idea that ‘‘ eating the Passover” applies to any- 
thing but the great Paschal meal. Our ignorance as to the custom of the 
Jews at the time makes it impossible to determine the extent of impurity 
contracted by entering the house of a heathen, but it would at any rate 
last till sunset, in which case the person thus impure could not be present 
at the sacrifice of the offering in the Temple. Nor is it less decisive on 
the point that towards the close of the evening on which the Last Supper 
took place, and when it was nearly ended, the disciples thought that Judas 


2. Indirect Evi- 
dence. 


(a) St. John im= 
plies that the Pass- 
over was not eaten 
on the Crucifixion 
Day. 


1 Sapientes dicunt, in Judxa opera- 
bantur vespera Paschatis ("2792 
E"McE) usque ad meridiem. Sed in 
Galilea nihil omnino operabantur ; et 
nocte schola Schammai vetat, schola 
Hillelis permittit usque ad scintilla- 
tionem solis. Cf.§ 6. The whole chap- 
ter is worthy of study in illustration of 
the care with which even the fourteenth 
Nisan was observed. Cf. Pesach. ν. 1, 
p. 150. 

2 Mark xiv. 15, δείξει ἀνώγαιον μέγα 
ἐστρωμένον ἕτοιμον. 

8 The phrase occurs in the account of 


the institution of the Passover, Exod. 
xii. 21, ϑύσατε τὸ πάσχα, and, though 
the words might perhaps be extended 
to the keeping of the whole rite, yet 
they properly describe the sacrificial 
act as distinguished from the entire fes- 
tival (ποιεῖν τὸ πάσχα, Num. ix. 2, 6, 
20, etc.). Cf. Deut. xvi. 2, 5, 6; Ezra 
vi. 20, 21, ἔσφαξαν τὸ macxa... καὶ 
ἔφαγον τὸ πάσχα. 

4 The passages quoted in support of 
the rendering, ‘‘ celebrate the feast, by 
eating the Chagiga,” fail in true paral- 
lelism (Bleek, Beitr. 109 ff.). 


29 


338 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


was dismissed that he might buy the things which were needed for the 
feast (John xiii. 29, ὧν χρείαν ἔχομεν eis τὴν ἑορτήν), which was already 
defined as ‘‘the feast of the Passover” (xiii. 1, mpd δὲ τῆς ἑορτῆς τοῦ 
πάσχα). On the fifteenth such purchases would have been equally illezal 
and impossible. 
This passage leads to the series of other passages already alluded to, 
which so far determine the day of Crucifixion as to show 
Peers (τῷ that it was not fifteenth Nisan. This day —the first day 
ply that the Cruct- Of unleavened bread — was a Sabbath, on which the Sab- 
Jivion day was not atic law of rest was specially binding (Exod. xii. 16; 
the fifteenth Nisan se a 53 Ε 
(a Sabbath). Ley. xviii. 7). Now the Synoptists and St. John alike 
exclude the notion that the day of the Crucifixion was 
such a “Sabbath.” Apart from the extreme improbability that such a 
festival as the first day of unleavened bread would be described as “ Fri- 
day” or ‘‘Preparation-day,”’ everything is done without scruple which 
would have been unlawful on a Sabbath. A commission to make pur- 
chases is regarded as natural (John xiii. 29); the Lord and His disciples 
leave the city contrary to the command (Exod. xii. 22); men come armed 
for the arrest of Christ! (Luke xxii. 52); the Jewish council meets for 
judgment ; Simon comes (as it appears) from his ordinary work (Mark xy. 
21; Luke xxiii. 26, ἐρχόμενον am ἀγροῦ); the condemned are executed and 
taken down from the crosses, and at the close of the day spices are pre- 
pared for the embalming of the Lord (Luke xxiii. 55), and because of the 
Preparation (that is, of the approaching Sabbath) He is laid in a tomb 
which was near (John xix. 42), whereas if it were the fifteenth, the day 
itself was a Sabbath.2 To those familiar by experience with Jewish usages, 
as all the Evangelists must have been, the whole narrative of the Cruci- 
fixion, crowded with incidents of work, would set aside the notion that 
the day was the fifteenth. Where the idea was excluded by facts, there 
would be no need of words and no fear of ambiguity; and if we keep 
clearly in view the Sabbatical character of the fifteenth, we shall be satis- 
fied that all the Evangelists equally forbid us to place the Crucifixion on 
such a day. 
One or two allusions, which perhaps cannot be urged as arguments 
without claiming greater authority for the symbolic 
(6) The symbol-\ meaning of Holy Scripture than many would concede, 
tm of the Passion“. <cem to point clearly to the result which has been thus 
Javors the feur- 
roonth of Nisan." obtained from-the positive evidence in favor of the four- 
teenth Nisan, and the negative evidence against the fif- 
‘eenth. St. John, by applying to our Lord words from the institution of 


hac 5 ς : 
patie BSSOVer,? evidently contemplates Him as the true Paschal Lamb, and 


on whic. 

Luke xxii.'c,it may be noticed, when acts mentioned, on the Sabbath: the 

against this supyined to avoid the feast enumeration itself seems sufficient for 

teroth appears toark xiv. 2, μὴ ἐν τῇ any one acquainted with the Jewish 

which the most forcec law. 

insufficient to remove. : authorities to 3 John xix. 86, compared with Exod. 
2 This will be felt at oting the several xii. 46. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 999 


the harmony of the narrative is completed by the supposition that the 
time as well as the mode of the Lord’s death coincided with that of the 
typical victim.t St. Paul repeats the same idea more distinctly, 1 Cor. v. 7, 
τὸ πάσχα ἡμῶν ἐτύϑη Χριστός: ὥστε ἑορτάσωμεν κ. τ. A.; and it has been 
argued with great plausibility that if he had regarded the institution of 
the Eucharist as taking place at the Paschal meal, he would not have said 
simply ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ 4 παρεδιδετὸ (1 Cor. xi. 23). Nor is it to be forgotten 
that these references of St. Paul are the more important as proceeding 
from a distinct source. 

On such a point historical tradition may seem to some to be of no great 
weight, but it is evident that the tendency of any change 
in the tradition would be towards the identification of 
the Last Supper with the Paschal meal, and not towards 
the distinction of the two, if they had been originally connected. Now, 
as far as appears, early tradition is nearly unanimous in fixing the Cruci- 
fixion on the fourteenth, and in distinguishing the Last Supper from the 
legal Passover.2 This distinction is expressly made by Apollinaris,? Clem- 
ent of Alexandria, Hippolytus,® Tertullian, Irenzus,® who represent very 
different sections of the early Church. Origen, according to the Latin 
version of his Commentary on St. Matthew, seems to identify the Supper 
with the legal Passover, but the passage is confused.7 From the time of 
Chrysostom the meal was generally identified with the Passover;8 but 
Photius expressly notices that two writers who differed widely on other 
points of the Paschal controversy agreed in fixing the Passion on the 
fourteenth, contrary to the later opinion of the Church, and therefore 
reserves the question for cxamination.2 The quartodeciman controversy 


8. Historic Evi- 
dence. 


1In this aspect the time, the ninth 
hour (Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 84; 
Luke xxiii. 44), is very important. This 
was the beginning of the solemn Prepa- 
ration (comp. p. 335, n. 1). 

2 Cf. Routh, Rell. Sacr. i. 168. 

8 Fragm. ii. ap. Routh, i. p. 160, Aé- 
youow [οἱ δ ἄγνοιαν φιλονεικοῦσι 
περὶ τοὐτων] ὅτι τῇ id τὸ πρόβατον 
μετὰ τῶν μαϑητῶν ἔφαγεν ὁ Κύριος, 
τῇ δὲ μεγάλῃ ἡμέρᾳ τῶν ἀζύμων αὐτὸς 
ἔπαδϑεν" καὶ διηγοῦνται Ματϑαῖον οὕτω 
λέγειν ὡς νενοήκασιν. ὅϑεν ἀσύμφω- 
vos τε νόμῳ ἣ νόησις αὐτῶν, καὶ στα- 
σιόζειν δοκεῖ κατ᾽ αὐτοὺς τὰ εὐαγγέ- 
Ata. This fragment is specially impor- 
tant as pointing to what may have been 
the source of the confusion, the differ- 
ent reckoning of the Jewish ecclesias- 
tical and natural days: the evening at 
the beginning of the fourteenth seems 
to have been confounded with the eve- 
ning at the end of the fourteenth (the 


natural day), 7. e., the evening of the 
fifteenth and the time of the Paschal 
meal. 

Apollinaris (in /ragm. iii.) elsewhere 
states distinctly that the Lord, “the 
great sacrifice,’ was crucified and 
“buried on the day of the Passover,” 
the fourteenth, * the true Passover of 
our Lord.” 

4 Clem. Alex. Fragm. p. 1016, Pott. 

5 Hipp. Fragm. i. ii. (p. 869, ed. 
Migne). 

6 Tertull. adv. Jud. 8; Iren. iv. 10,1 
(28) (quoted by Browne, Ordo Seclo- 
rum, p. 66). Yet Irenzus calls the 
meal “ἃ Passover” (ii. 22, 2). 

7 Orig. Comm. in Matt. § 79. 

8 The interesting Catena on St. Mark 
published by Cramer contains both 
opinions (Cram. Cat, in Mare. pp. 420, 
421), the second with a reference to St. 
John, 

9 Phot. Cod. 115, 116. 


340 THE DIFFERENCES IN DETAIL 


itself has no decisive bearing on the date. The evidence as to the point 
on which the controversy turned is too meagre and ambiguous to allow of 
any satisfactory conclusions being drawn from it.1 
But in answer to all these arguments which are drawn from direct and 
indirect evidence of every kind, it is said that the Syn- 
Obj. The Synop-  optists plainly speak of the Last Supper as the Paschal 
tic account of the 
Wasi Supper. meal. It might, perhaps, be enough to answer that they 
define the day of the Crucifixion at least as plainly, and 
that St. John, who is in perfect harmony with them as to the day, shows 
that the meal was not the Paschal meal, as, indeed, it could not be, if it 
was on “the Preparation-day.” Either, then, they must include a gross 
contradiction in their narrative, or we must misinterpret their meaning as 
to the day or the meal; and certainly not as to the former, because that is 
fixed by a complicated chain of evidence, while the other is expressed in 
one or two phrases which admit readily of a different sense, when once we 
reflect that the very circumstances of the case must have put out of ques- 
tion for Jews what appears to us to be their most natural meaning. It is 
said that the disciples speak of “ preparing for eating the Passover” 
(Matt. xxvi. 17; Mark xiv. 12; Luke xxii. 9); that Christ Himself pro- 
poses to eat it (Matt. xxvi. 18); Mark xiv.15; Luke xxii.8); that the dis- 
ciples actually “prepared the Passover” (ἡτοίμασαν τὸ πάσχα; Matt. 
xxvi. 19; Mark xiv. 16; Luke xxii. 13); that in the course of the meal 
which followed immediately afterwards the Lord said, “I desired to eat 
this Passover with you” (ἐπεϑύμησα τοῦτο τὸ πάσχα φαγεῖν ped ὑμῶν, 
Luke xxii. 15). If these words stood alone, there can be no doubt that we 
should explain them of the Paschal meal taken at the legal time; but the 
Evangelists who use them exclude this sense by their subsequent narra- 
tive, and there are in the contexts indications of the sense in which they 
must be taken. The Lord, in sending His disciples to 
make the preparation, said, “My time is near” (Matt. 
xxvi. 18), as if to explain something unusual in His com- 
mand. He sent, as the words imply, to a disciple who was expecting 
Him, and speaks with authority as “the Master” (ὁ διδάσκαλος, Matt. 
xxvi. 18; Mark xiv. 14; Luke xxii. 11). May we not then suppose that 
the preparation which the disciples may have destined for the next day 
was made the preparation for an immediate meal which became the 
Paschal meal of that year, when the events of the following morning 
rendered the regular Passover impossible?? If this seems a forced sense, 
we must remember that while the memory of events was still fresh, as it 
was when the oral Gospel was fixed, statements which are perplexing to 
us may have been readily intelligible from a knowledge of the connecting 
facts. Nothing at least can be more unlikely than that the narratives 
should be severally inconsistent with themselves. Ritual difficulties which 


How this must be 
understood. 


1 Cf. Bleek, Beitr. 156 ff. The use of πάσχα for the Christian 

2 Hippol. /ragm. i. p. 869, οὗτος yap Eucharist would render the confusion 
ἣν τὺ πάσχα τὺ προκεκηρυγμένον καὶ easicrin after time; cf. Mingarelli, Did. 
τελειούμενον TH ὡρισμένῃ ἡμέρᾳ. de Trin. ii. 16. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 941 


we can feel only by effort and careful study, would be felt instinctively by 
the Evangelists. They and their first readers could not have referred the 
events of the Crucifixion-day to the “ Sabbath” on the fifteenth, and con- 
sequently could not, as we might do, refer the words which describe the 
supper which precedcd it to the legal Passover. 

II. It remains to notice very briefly the second point of inquiry. Long 
use and tradition seem to have decided this already, but 
it may be questioned whether there are not grounds for ΤΠ. The tweek- 

i ἐξα: day of the Cruci- 

doubting the correctness of the common opinion. In the fivion. 
record which St. Matthew has preserved of the saying of 
the Lord as to “the sign of Jonah,” it is stated that “the Son of Man 
shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”’ (Matt. xii. 
40, τρεῖς ἡμέρας καὶ τρεῖς νύκτας). Admitting that the parts of the days 
of the burial and the resurrection are to be reckoned as “ days,” yet even 
thus the period from Friday tili Sunday is only three days and two nights. 
Are we then to conclude that the separate enumeration of days and nights 
is without any special force, and strictly speaking inaccurate? or to sup- 
pose that the term ‘‘ Preparation-day ” has led to the very natural but erro- 
neous identification of the day of the Crucifixion with Friday? The evi- 
dence on both sides is but slight. On the one hand it may be said that St. 
John spoke of the Sabbath which followed the Preparation as being of 
special solemnity (John xix. 31, ἦν δὲ μεγάλη 7 ἡμέρα ἐκείνου τοῦ σαββά- 
Tov), and this would certainly be the case if the fifteenth of Nisan, a festi- 
val Sabbath, coincided with the weekly Sabbath; and so also St. Luke 
appears to mark only one day as intervening between the burial and the 
resurrection (Luke xxiii. 54, 56, σάββατον ἐπέφωσκεν ... τὸ μὲν σάββατον 
ἡσύχασαν). But St. Matthew describes the day after the Crucifixion in so 
remarkable a manner, as to lead to the belief that he did not regard it as 
the weekly Sabbath: “The next day that followed the day of the Prepara- 
tion the chief priests came to Pilate” (τῇ δὲ ἐπαύριον, ἥτις ἐστὶν μετὰ τὴν 
παρασκευήν, Matt. xxvii. 62). Such a circumlocution seems most unnatu- 
ral if the weekly Sabbath were intended; but if it were the first day of 
unleavened bread, then, as the proper title of that day had been already 
used to describe the commencement of the Preparation-day (Matt. xxvi. 
17, TH δὲ πρώτῃ τῶν ἀζύμων), no characteristic term remained for it. More- 
over, the day in itself was a “‘ great Sabbath,” and could be described as 
such by St. John, without supposing any coincidence of the weekly and 
festival Sabbaths. And the whole Sabbatic period, extending from the 
beginning of the fifteenth of Nisan to the dawn of the first day of the 
week might, perhaps, without violence be called a Sabbath; or at least 
the rest on the fifteenth might be implied in the statement of the rest 
observed on the Sabbath. Such a period would completely satisfy the 
term fixed by “the sign of Jonah,” and the text of the Gospels, with the 
exception of the one passage in St. Luke, which forms an apparent diffi- 
culty, leaves the length of the entombment undetermined, except so far 
as it is fixed by “the first day of the week,” and the legal resting-time 
which interrupted the preparations of the disciples.l 


1The other dates which refer to the interval are; (1) Matt. xxvii. 63, εἶπεν 
29% 


542 


DIFFERENCES OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 


But without pursuing the question further at present, what has been 
said may be sufficient to direct attention to the investigation, which seems 
to call for more notice than has been hitherto given to it. 


«ὐὐ μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας ἐγείρο- 
μαι' κέλευσον οὖν; cf. Mark viii. 31, 
δεῖ... -μετὰ τρεῖς ἡμέρας" ἄνα- 
στῆναι; Mark ix. 81; x. 84, ἀσφαλισ- 
Siva τὸν τάφον ἕως τῆς Tpitns 
ἡμέρας. (2) John ii. 19, λύσατε τὸν 
ναὺν τοῦτον καὶ [ἐν] τρισὶν ἡμέραις 
ἐγερῶ αὐτόν. Cf. Matt. xxvi.61; Mark 
xiv. 58; διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν. Matt. 


xxvii. 40; Mark xy. 29, ἐν τρισὶν ἣμέ- 
pats. (3) Matt. xvi. 21; xvii. 23; xx. 
19; Luke ix. 22; xviii. 83; xxiv. 7, 46, 
τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἀναστῆναι. (4) Luke 
xxiv. 21, τρίτην ταύτην ἡμέραν ἄγει. 
It will scarcely be denied that the ob- 
vious meaning of these phrases favors 
the longer interval, which follows from 
the strict interpretation of Matt. xii. 40. 


CHAPTER-: VAI. 


THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT OF THE SYNOPTIC 
EVANGELISTS. 


Le coeur a son ordre.— PASCAL. 


Tux differences of arrangement in the Synoptic Evangel- 
ists are more obvious and not less important 
than the differences in detail. Numerous  yamcmentnottote 
groups of events present the same arrange- yin το, 
ment in every case, but other events are trans- 
posed, so as to convey a new lesson from the new position 
in which they stand. While there is very much which is 
common to all the Synoptists, the incidents peculiar to 
each produce the same kind of individuality in the whole 
narratives, as the special details impart to the separate ele- 
ments of which they are composed. Each Evangelist has 
a characteristic arrangement, coincident up to a certain 
point with that of the others, and yet so far different that 
harmonists are commonly driven to violent expedients — 
assumptions of the repetition or confusion of similar events 
—to bring all into agreement. But before taking recourse 
to such solutions of the difficulty we may fairly ask, whether 
the order of the Evangelists is a violation or an abandon- 
ment of chronological sequence. If the succession of time 
is subordinated to the succession of idea, then it is but lost 
labor to seek for a result which our materials are not fitted 
to produce. The object of the student will be to follow out 
the course of each revelation of the Truth, and not to frame 


944 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 
annals of the Saviour’s Life. There are, indeed, times 
marked out by marvellous coincidences and significant 
relations in which we may sce something of the symmetry 
of the divine plan of history, but evidence is wanting to jus- 
tify the extension of a system of minute dates to the teach- 
ing of the Lord. If what has been already said of the 
fragmentariness of the Gespels be true, and the character 
and express language of St. John’s Gospel seem to be con- 
clusive on this point, then it is from the first unlikely that 
writings which do not aim at completeness should observe 
with scrupulous exactness the order of time. Selection is 
in the one case what arrangement is in the other. The 
first was guided by an instinctive perception of representa- 
tive facts; the other by an instinctive perception of their 
relation to a central idea. An inspired order is the cor- 
relative of an inspired abridgment. The existence of the 
one suggests the existence of the other, or at least removes 
any presumption against the disregard of the common 
rule of composition. 

If, however, the text of the Gospel bear clear traces 
of a systematic attention to chronology, the 
argument based on a mere analogy which 
might be expected to hold between matter 
and form must be set aside. But in fact it is not so. The 
examination of a few chapters of the Synoptic Gospels 
will leave little doubt that temporal sequence was not the 
standard of their arrangement. Their whole structure, as 
well as their contents, serves to prove that they are me- 
moirs and not histories. Definite marks of time and place 
are extremely rare; and general indications of temporal or 
local connection are scarcely more frequent.! The ordi- 


The Gospels ex- 
hibit few traces of 
tt. 


1 From the time of the Temptation 
to the Transfiguration I have noticed 
only the following distinct connections 
of detailed events: 

1. Matt. viii. 18, 34. The storm 
stilled; the Gadarene demoniacs; the 
return. So Mark iy. 35 ff. (connecting 


these events with the great day of Par- 
ables: cf. Matt. xiii. 53); Luke viii. 22 ff. 

2. Matt. ix. 18, ταῦτα αὐτοῦ λαλοῦν- 
Tos. Of the new and old; Jairus’ 
daughter. Cf. Mark y. 22; Luke viii. 
41, καὶ ἰδού, fixing no connection of 
time. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 


345 


nary words of transition are either indefinite or are dis- 


junctive.! 


are more like collections of anecdotes than histories. 


3. Matt. ix. 82, αὐτῶν δὲ ἐξερχομέ- 
νων. The healing of two blind; the 
healing of a dumb man (peculiar to St. 
Matthew). 

4, Matt. xii. 46, ἔτι αὐτοῦ λαλοῦντος ; 
xiii 1, ἐν TH ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνη (yet cf. Acts 
viii. 1). Mark iv. 1, καὶ πάλιν. Luke 
viii. 4, συνιόντος δὲ ὄχλου. The Dblas- 
phemy of Pharisees; the true kindred; 
the day of Parables. Compare No. 1. 

5. Matt. xiv. 22; Mark vi. 45, evdéws 
ἠνάγκασεν. The walking on the water 
immediately after the feeding the five 
thousand. 

6. Matt. xvii. 1; Mark ix. 2, mes 
ἡμέρας ἕξ. Luke ix. 28, ὡσεὶ ἡμέραι 
ὔὄκτω. The coming of the kingdom; 
the Transfiguration. 

7. Mark i. 29, καὶ εὐθὺς ἐξελϑόντες, 
Luke iy. 38, ἀναστὰς δέ (Matt. viii. 14, 
καὶ eAS@y...noconnection: ef. y 23; 
Mark i. 89). The demoniac in the syn- 
agogue; Peter's wife’s mother cured. 

8. Luke vii. 11, ἐν τῇ ἑξῆς (all. τῷ 
éfijs). The centurion’s servant; the 
widow’s son. 

These data are evidently insufficient 
to determine one certain order of 
events; nor are the ambiguities re- 
moved by taking into account the no- 
tices that some events followed others: 
Matt. ix. 9,27; xii. 9,15; xv. 21, 29. 

It may be observed that the style of 
St. Matthew produces the greatest ap- 
pearance of continuity, though prob- 
ably he offers the most numerous diver- 
gences from chronological order. (Cf. 
Matt. viii. 1, ὄχλοι πολλοί; 2—4, 
καὶ ἰδού... μηδενὶ εἴπῃς: 5, εἰσελ- 
δόντος ; 14, καὶ ἐλϑών; 18, ἰδὼν δέ; 
23, καὶ ἐμβάντι; χῖν. 13,14). St Luke, 
on the other hand, is the least con- 
nected. ‘The great series of events 
which he connects with the last jour- 
ney to Jerusalem (xi.—xvii.), is at once 
one of the strongest arguments against 
the observance of time by the Evangel- 


Outwardly, at first sight, the Synoptic Gospels 


If 


ists, and the most striking illustration 
of their mode of connection. 


1JIn this respect the usage of each 
Evangelist is peculiar. The following 
connecting phrases may be noticed: 

1. In St. Matthew: 

(a) Τότε (at that time; no close se- 
quence. The word does not occur in 
this manner in St. Mark; ef. Luke xxi. 
10) iii. 5, 18; (iv. 1); ix. 14, 37 (ef. v. 35); 
Xi 20s xii. 225/885) (xiii. 36;) xv. 1. 12s 
xvi. 24; xviii. 21; xix. 18,27; xx. 20; 
xxiii. 1. In iy.1; xiii. 35, it marks a 
direct sequence. 

(Ὁ) δέ, iv. 18; vy. 1; viii. 18; xi. 2; 
Xv. 82; xvi. 13. 

(c) Kat, iv. 23; viii. 14; ix.2, 9,27, 85; 
ee Mie i Oe oy. οἰ ν 1.1" be 

(d) ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ, xi. 25; xii. 
1; xiv. 1. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ, xviii. 1. 
ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις, 11ϊ.1. ἐν τῇ 
ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, xiii. 1. 

(e) Τὸ these may be added the use of 
ἐκεῖϑεν, ix.9, 27; xii. 9, 15; xiii. 53; 
xy. 21, 29. 

2. In St. Mark: 

(a) kal... πάλιν, ii. 1,13; iii. 1; iv. 
1 (καὶ πάλιν); vii. 81 (καὶ πάλιν); viii. 
1, ἐν ἐκείναις ταῖς ἡμέραις πάλιν. 

(b) καί, 1.21, 40; ii. 18, 28; iii. 7, 18, 
20, 31; iv. 21, 24, 26, 80; vi. 1, 7, 14, 30; 
vii. 1, 28; viii. 22, 27. 

3. In St. Luke: 

(a) καὶ ἐγένετο (ἔγένετο δέ) (occurs 
in St. Luke forty-one times; in St. 
Mark twice; in St. Matthew, καὶ ἐγέ- 
veTo OTe ἐτέλεσεν (συνετ. Viii. 28), 
five times: else once, ix. 10), v. 1, 12, 17; 
Wigs 9. ἐῶν val. 11} ὙΠ 1 22sec 
ΠῚ ΠῚ ἘΞ ΠΣ 

(Ὁ) καί, iv. 16, 81; vii. 18; viii. 26; 
κ᾿ ΤΟ aT prem: uray 

(c) δέ, vii. 86; viii. 19; ix. 1, 7, 48, 46; 
ΟΣ bad Lic 

The connections of xXi.—xvii. will be 
noticed afterwards. 


THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


we compare any series of incidents which they contain 
with a similar series in any historian, ancient or modern, 
we shall find at once that, apart from all other differences, 
there is a fundamental difference in the way in which the 
incidents are put together. In the one the circumstances 
of time and place rule the combination; in the other the 
spiritual import, not independent of these, but yet rising 
above them, is distinctly predominant. 

But while it is maintained that the separate Gospels are 
not to be forced into any chronological har- 
mony; that the law of their composition is 
moral and not temporal; that there is a pro- 
gressive development in the several histories, 
to neglect which is to lose the very outline of their divine 
meaning; yet the order of time, as far as it can be ascer- 
tained, is not to be neglected. The occasion frequently 
gives its character to the action. A marked connection 
brings out with unerring power some latent trait which 
might otherwise have been overlooked.! Thus it is that 
particular days seem to stand out with signal prominence 
in the history of Christ, as portraying a crisis of faith and 
unbelief in a rapid concurrence of events.2. The days them- 
selves stand isolated, while as distinct wholes they have an 
internal unity. But beyond such a limited influence of 
time as this, there is an influence which extends to a much 
wider range. In the perfect Life all succession proceeds by 
asupreme law. The progress in the lessons which it unfolds 
will answer absolutely, as among men partially, to its out- 
ward development. It is, then, impossible but that there 


The order of time 
generally — coinci- 
dent with aspiritual 
order. 


receive a new life. It is impossible not 
to recognize in this a typical meaning. 


1 The healing of the woman with the 
issue, which in all the accounts inter- 


rupts the history of the raising of Jai- 
rus’ daughter, offers the most remark- 
able illustration of this, The beginning 
of the woman’s plague was coeval with 
the maiden’s birth. The one had suf- 
fered for twelve years when she was 
made whole; the other had lived for 
twelye years when she fell asleep to 


The faith of the Gentiles seizes the gift 
which is destined for the Jew. This is 
beautifully brought out by Hilary, Jn 
Matt. ix, § 6. 

2Two such days may be noticed: 
Luke iy. 88—42, a day of faith; Mark 
111. 22—y. 22, a day of opposition, warn- 
ing, power, 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 947 


should be some broad lines of agreement in order between 
records of Christ’s work based on its varied spiritual mean- 
ings. General agreement will be diversified by character- 
istic divergences. The agreement will be sufficiently wide 
to convey to us some sense of the infinite harmony of every 
part and relation of the human life of the Saviour; the 
divergence sufficiently striking to save us from sacrificing 
the manifold bearings of eternal truth to a rigid order 
of time. 5 

If this view be correct, the technical work of the har- 
monist is limited to a narrow compass. When 
he has shown that the few incidental fixed y.’6erry 
dates in the Gospels are consistent with one  oy7iiu icon 
another, all objections drawn from the dis- ss wich ter 
cordant order which they present otherwise 
fall to the ground. He is then free to interpret the letter 
by the spirit; and to lay open that inner harmony which 
springs out of the union of various purposes, and leads to 
the full portraiture of a divine work. The reality of such 
a harmony is involved, as we have seen, in the very idea 
of Inspiration, and it is, perhaps, a corollary from the exist- 
ence of a four-fold record. Yet it is to be felt rather than 
analyzed. The subtlest signs by which it is characterized 
vanish in the rude process of dissection. To present it 
clearly, and even then very inadequately, would be to write 
a commentary on the Gospels; and for the present it must 
be enough if we can determine some of the great features 
by which it appears to be distinguished. 

We have already seen that St. Matthew connects the 
beginning of the Gospel-history with the glo- 5. γος 
ries of the typical kingdom and the hopes of Gel. 


The History of 
the first covenant. At the very outset he te promised ames- 
announces the Messiah as the son of David The Introduction 
and the son of Abraham, the branch and seed “"” 
to which all prophecy looked. The genealogy, confined 
within the limits of the national promise, is the introduc- 


548 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


tion to his narrative; the birth of the Christ? his first sub- 
ject. The inner scope of the whole Gospel is directed to 
the development of this idea in the light of ancient revela- 
tion. The fear of Joseph is connected with 
the righteousness of the law; and the imper- 
fection of this righteousness is at once intimated by the 


Matt. t. 18, 


1 There can be little doubt that the correct reading in Matt. i. 18, is τοῦ δὲ 
Χριστοῦ͵ ἣ γένεσις οὕτως ἦν. * 
2 The following analysis may guide the student in pursuing the teaching of 
St. Matthew. 
INTRODUCTION. ii, ii. 
The Royal pedigree (i, 1—17). 
The Virgin’s Son, the promised Saviour (18—25). 
The homage (ii. 1—12). 
The persecution (13—23). 
(In all the words of prophets are fulfilled.) 
1. THE PRELUDE. iii, iv. 
(a) The Baptist (iii.): 
The Messenger (1—6). The Message (7—12). The Recognition 
(18—17). 
(b) The Messiah (iv ): 
The Trial (1—11). The Home (12—16). The Message (17). The 
Call (18—22). The Work (23—25). 
2. Tir LAWGIVER AND PROPHET, v.—xiii. 
(a) The new Law in relation to the old (vy.—vii.) 
(b) The testimony of signs (viii., ix.). 
Characteristics (viii. 1—15). 
The Suppliant (Resignation, 1—4); the Intercessor (Faith, 
65—18); the Restored (Service, 14, 15). 
The Lord and the Disciples (viii. 18—ix. 17). 
Self-denial (18—22). 
Power (Nature, 23—27; Spirits, 28—84; Sin, ix. 1—8). 
Mercy (9—13). 
Prudence (14—17). 
The Results (ix. 18—84). 
Faith confirmed (20—22); raised (28—26); attested (27—81), 
Unbelief hardened (82—34). 
(c) The Commission (ix. 86—xi.). 
The Charge (x.). 
The Hearers (xi.). 
John (1—15); the People (16—19). 
Woes (20—24); Thanksgivings (25—80). 
(4) The Contrast (xii.). 
The letter and the spirit of the Law. 
Example (1—9); Miracle (10—18). 
The kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God (22—87), 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 949 


reference to the sins of the people from which Christ should 
save them. But the holy name Jesus —sym- 
bolical at once of the ancient triumphs of Is- 
rael and of the future triumphs of the Church — is merged 


Matt. i. 21. 


The sign of Jonas (88—45). 
Natural and spiritual kindred (46—50). 


(6) Parables of the kingdom: its rise, growth, consummation (xiii.). 


38. THe Kina. xiv.—xxv. 
(a) The character of the King, compared with 

Temporal dominion: 
The feast of Herod; death of John (xiv. 1—12). 
The feast of Christ (Jews); the disciples saved (183—33). 

Hierarchical dominion: 
The tradition of the elders (xv. 1—20). 
The Syropheenician heard (21—28). 
The Gentiles healed and fed (29—39). 
Truth hidden from some (xvi. 1—12), revealed to others (18—20). 


(b) Glimpses of the kingdom. 
The prospect of suffering (xvi. 24—28). 
The vision of glory (xvii. 1—13). 
The secret source of strength (14—21). 
The citizens. 

Moral principles: Obedience: a sign (xvii. 24—27); Humility, 
Unselfishness, Forgiveness (xviii.). 

Social characteristics: Marriage, children, riches, sacrifice 
(xix.). 

Yet all without intrinsic merit (xx. 1—16). 

(c) The King claims his heritage. 
The Journey (xx. 17—34) 
The triumphal Entrance (xxi. 1—17). 
The Conflict (xxi. 18—xxii.). 

The sign (xxi. 18—22). The first question (23—27). The por- 
traiture (28—xxii. 14). The temptation (15—40). The last 
question (41—46). 

The Judgment (xxiii.—xxv.). 

The Teachers (xxiii.). 

The City (xxiv.). 

The World (xxyv.). 


4. DEATH THE GATE OF THE ETERNAL KINGDOM. xxvi.—xxviii. 
(a) The Passion (xxvi., xxvii.). 
Contrasts: foreknowledge, craft (xxvi. 1—8). 
love, treason (6—16). 

The Last Supper: woes foreseen and faced (17—29). 
The rash promise: power misjudged (80—35). 

The inward Agony (36—46). 

The outward Desertion (87—56). 

The Confession of Christ (57—68). 
30 


800 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT “ 


for the moment in that mysterious title which was conse- 
erated by the memory of an ancient deliver- 
ance. The sense of God’s personal presence, 
which, when shadowed forth in former times, had sustained. 
the king of Judah against the armies of Syria and Damas- 
cus, is at length confirmed by a literal fulfilment of the 
symbol. Jmmanuel is no longer a figure, but a truth. 
The parable becomes a fact; the word of hope, a confes- 
sion of faith. : 
The first chapter declares the title of Messiah, the 
second foreshows His reception. Adoration on the one 
side, persecution on the other; the ministry of the powers 
of heaven, the tyranny of the powers of earth; bloodshed 
and flight and exile; such are the beginnings of the king- 
dom. Ile who is saluted by prophets as God 
with us, is, according to the tenor of their 
teaching, a Nazarene, poor and despised, in the eyes of men. 
So far we have a preface to the Gospel pregnant with 
symbolic facts. Next follows a brief sum- 
mary of Messiah’s work, presented in a rapid 
contrast between His preaching and the 
preaching of His herald. Both proclaim the same mes- 
sage.! Both choose the field of their labor 
un“ ™ according to the declarations of prophecy. 
But with this the resemblance ends. The 
work of John is that of the Law, to awaken and convict. 


Is, vii. 


Matt. ii. 23. 


1. The Prelude. 
(iit. tv.) 


The denial of Peter (69—75). 

The death of Judas (xxvii. 83—10). 

The death of Christ (11—50). 
Christ and Barabbas (15—26). Christ and the soldiers (27—81). 
Christ and the bystanders (82—56). 

The Burial (57—61). The watch (62—66). 

(b) The Triwmph. 

The Rising in glory (1—10). 
The false report (11—15). 
The great commission (16—20). 


1 Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17, Μετανοεῖτε, Hy- reading in the second case is not simply 
γικεν yap 7 βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Ἤγγικεν ἣ Bao. τ΄ op. See Scholz 
It may be doubted whether the true «ad loc. 


* OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 351 


He confronts the two great sections of the Jewish Church! 
with terrible denunciations against the pre- 
scriptive holiness of descent and ritual. For 
hope he points only to Him who should come. In act, 
if not in word, he acknowledges the fulfilment of his 
office in the recognition of Messiah2 And then the 
scene changes. The wilderness, which was 

the place of John’s teaching, is the place of 

Christ’s Temptation. When John is cast into prison, 
Christ definitely begins His work? Instead of repelling 
or dismissing men, Christ calls them to fol- 
low Him and share His labor. He announces 
in the synagogues the Gospel of the king- 
dom,* and confirms His word by sigus of 
power and love. 

From this point we are led to regard our Lord more in 
detail under His different offices, as Law- 
giver, Prophet, and King. One trait prepares 
the way for the other, so that it is difficult to 
make a very definite line of demarcation between the 
different sections of the history; but, while the transitions 
are gradual, the general progress of idea is beyond ques- 
tion. The beginning is a counterpart of the revelation from 
Sinai; the close a fulfilment of the covenant with David. 

In this aspect the Sermon on the Mount is first scen in 
its true bearing on the scope of St. Matthew. 
That which was for St. Luke but as one dis- 
course among many, was for St. Matthew the 
introduction and key to 4115 The phrase with which it is 


Matt. tii. 7. 


Matt. tii. 1; iv. 1. 


Matt. iv. 18 fF. 


Hatt. iv. 23 ff. 


2. The Messiah 
as Lawgiver and 
Prophet. (v.—aiii.) 


(a) The New 
Law. (v.—viii.) 


1 From not observing the point of ὃ Matt. ἵν. 19,17. Yet He had taught 


this, some have felt a difficulty at the 
mention of these sects. St. Matthew 
gives the relation of the religious par- 
ties of the Jews to John, as St. Luke 
of each social class. Both form to- 
gether a whole: τῶν ap. καὶ Σαδδ. 

2 Thus he yields to the words, πλη- 
ρῶσαι πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην (Matt. iii. 15). 
Compare Jobn i. 81. 


before: John iii. 22 ff. 

4 Matt. iv. 28, τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς 
βασιλείας. The phrase is characteris- 
tic of St. Matthew, ix. 35 (a remarkable 
parallel); xxiv. 14. In Mark i. 14, it is 
a false reading. 

5 Matt. xxviii. 18, 20. 

6 There cannot, I think, be any rea- 
sonable doubt that the discourse related 


302 


THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


opened marks the solemn majesty of its delivery... Words 


of blessing are the preface of the new dispensation. 


Step 


by step the nature of Christ is unfolded as the consumma- 


tion of the Jewish Theocracy.’ 


in Luke vi. 20 ff. is the same as that 
related by St. Matthew. The differ- 
ences on which some have laid stress 
vanish upon an accurate examination 
of the text. The scene in St. Matthew 
is τὸ ὄρος (vy. 1), a word of general 
meaning: St. Luke defines the spot 
more precisely as τόπος πεδινός (vi. 17, 
not πεδίον), a plateau on the mountain, 
below its highest peak (kataBds), such 
as would naturally be chosen for ad- 
dressing amultitude. I see no contra- 
diction between ἔστη in Luke vi. 17, 
and καϑίσαντος αὐτοῦ in Matt. ν. 1. 
The words refer to different moments, 
and St. Luke preserves a trait of the 


The great features of the 


latter in vi. 20, €mapas τοὺς ὀφϑαλ- 
\ > Cae wes \ , 
μοὺς αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς μασϑητάς. 


1 Matt. ν. 1, ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα (cf. 
Eph. vi. 9). Spanheim, Dub. Evang. 
iii. p. 375. In v.21 ff. ἀρχαίοις is cer- 
tainly {as apparently all the ancient 
versions) “to the men of old.” Cf. 
Rom. ix. 12 (ix. 20 LXX); Gal. iii. 16; 
Apoe. vi. 11; ix. 4; Matt. xxii. 81. 


21 is worthy of remark that the 
Kingdom is noticed in the first and last 
(vy. 8, 10); nor would it be difficult to 
point out a relation observed in the 
order of the blessings. Verses 4 and 5 
in Εἰ. VY. should be transposed. 


8 The following outline of the Sermon on the Mount will make this clearer : — 


1. THE CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM (Υ. 1—16). 


(a) Their character (1—12). 
In themselves (8—6). 
Poor in spirit. 
eousness. 
Relatively (7—12). 
Merciful to men. 
secuted. 


Meek. Sorrowing. 


Peace towards God. Pursuing peace. 


Hungering after -right- 


Per- 


The example of the prophets. 


(Ὁ) Their influence (13—16). 
To preserve (18). 
2. THe NEw Law (17—48). 


To guide (14—16). 


(a) The fulfilment of the Old generally (17—20). 
(Ὁ) The fulfilment of the spirit of special commandments. 
Murder. Adultery. Perjury. Revenge. Exclusiveness. (21—48.) 


8. THE New LIFE (vi.—vii. 28). 


(a) Acts of devotion (vi. 1—18). 


Alms (1—4). 
(Ὁ) Aims (19—34). 


Prayer (5—15). 


Fasting (16—18). 


The true treasure (19—21). 
The single service (22—24). 
‘he perfect repose (25—84). 


(c) Conduct vii. (I—12). 
1 Matt. 
γικεν γὰρ 
It may be ἂς 


Charitable in judging (1—5). 
Circumspect in teaching (6). 
Faithful in well-doing (7—12). 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 85a 


Christian commonwealth, the character! and influence of 
its citizens, the principles of the Christian law, and the 
practice of the Christian life, are deduced from the ordi- 
nances, and often expressed in the words, of the Old 
Testament. The voice which speaks is one of absolute 
authority, but it proclaims everywhere not abrogation but 
fulfilment. 

The promulgation of the new Law is followed by the 
record of a series of miracles? which enforce νὴ me testimony 
and explain the true position and authority sign (vit) 
of the Lawgiver. He fulfils the spirit of the = ¥ υἱῶὲ 1 7. 
Law and acknowledges its claims, while He violates the 


(d) Dangers (vii. 183—28). 
From himself (18, 14). 
From false teachers (15), to be tested by 
Works of faith (16—20), not by 
Works of power (21—23). 
4. THE GREAT CONTRAST (vii. 24—27). 

1 If we represent to ourselyes the company, the emphatic ὑμεῖς in y. 13, 14 will 
appear very striking. 

2 The following scheme of the Miracles recorded by St. Matthew will serve to 
show their relation to the framework of his Gospel. Noone scheme, of course, 
can exhaust the lessons of the miracles. This only shows their bearing in suc- 
cession upon one great idea. The miracles peculiar to St. Matthew are marked 
by italics: 

1. THE MIRACLES OF THE LAWGIVER. 
(a) In relation to the Old Law. 
a. The spirit before the letter (v. 8). 
The leper cleansed (viii. 2—4). 
ὃ. Faith before descent (v. 10). 
The healing of the centurion’s servant (viii. 5—18). 
c. The service of love before ritual observance (v. 14). 
The healing of Peter’s wife’s mother (viii. 14, 15). 
{Many healed, as Esaias prophesied, viii. 16, 17 ] 
(δ) In Himself, as all powerful over, 
a. The material world. 
The stilling of the storm (viii. 23—27). 
ὃ. The spiritual world. 
The Gadarene demoniacs healed (viii. 23—84). 
c. The power of sin. 
The paralytic healed (ix. 1—8). 
(c) In relation to man, as requiring faith: 
a. Actively, to seize the blessing. 
The woman with issue healed (ix. 20—22). 
ὃ. Passively, to receive it. 
Jairus’ daughter raised (ix. 18—26). 


808 


Sys: THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


letter; He points to faith, and not inheritance, as the basis 
of His kingdom; He shows that active gratitude for God’s 
mercies is unrestrained by ceremonial injunctions.? Or, to 
regard the subject from another point of sight, the same 
miracles indicate in succession the certainty, the spirituality, 
and the completeness of His works; and if we turn from 
the works themselves to those for whom they were wrought, 
we notice resignation as the true mark of the suppliant ; 
faith, of the intercessor; service, of the restored. Outcast, 
stranger, and friend, are alike heard. Allis, indeed, infinite 


6. As a measure of the blessing (v. 29). 
The two blind men (ix. 27—31). 
d. As the means of understanding it. 
The dumb devil cast out (ix. 82—34). 
[Many healed, ix. 35.] 
2. THE MIRACLES OF THE PROPHET OF THE KINGDOM. 
(a) Vindicating the law of conscience (in Action). 
The withered hand healed (xii. 10—14). 
(Ὁ) Rescuing the sight and speech from the power of evil. 
The blind and dumb devil cast out (xii. 22—30). 
8. THE MIRACLES OF THE KING. 
(a) As to His people. 
a. Jews. 
In relief of want. 
Feeding of the five thousand (xiv, 15—21). 
In relief of toil (v. 24). 
Walking on the sea (xiv. 22—33). 
b. Gentiles. 
In answer to prayer. 
The woman of Canaan (xv. 21—28). 
[Many healed, xv. 30, 31.) 
In reward of patience (v. 32). 
The feeding of the four thousand (xy. 82—389). 
(b) As to His title. 
a. Perfect by human preparation (v. 21). 
Healing the lunatic (xvii. 14—21). 
b. Legitimate by divine right (vv. 25, 26). 
The stater in the fish (xvi. 24—27). 
[Many healed, xxi. 2.] 
(c) As to His government. 
a. Merciful according to our prayer (v. 82). 
The two blind men healed (xx. 30—34). 
b. Just according to our fruits (vv. 19—22). 
The fig-tree cursed (xxi. 17—22). 
1 It was unlawful to touch a leper: Matt. viii. 3; Lev. v. 3. 
2 Matt. viii. 16 indicates that the miracle was wrought on the Sabbath. Cf. 
Luke iy. 81, 38. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 855 


because it is divine. The significance of the signs deepens 
as we look to their different bearings. 

The common relation of Christ to the people being thus 
indicated, He is seen in a clear relation to 
His disciples. He claims perfect self-denial 
and he exhibits perfect power and merey and wisdom. 
The material and spiritual worlds obey His voice: the bands 
of sin are loosened by His word. But, at the same time, 
faith is exhibited as the measure of man’s yaw. ix. 99. 
blessing, and the means whereby he may rec- _ Matt. ix. 6, 22. 
ognize the presence and the power of God. “ον 
The outward cure is the image of an unseen salvation. 
The blind do not see till they believe; and 
when utterance is given to the dumb, the 
Pharisees can say that the devil is cast out through the 
prince of the devils. 

The character of the Lawgiver next passes into that of 
the Prophet. The mission of the apostles is 
the public establishment of the kingdom, of 
which the nature and authority are already 
declared. Discourses predominate largely over miracles. 
The facts are constructive and not initiatory. ,, . 

The great charge is placed in vivid juxtaposi- mau. ai. 1-19; 
tion with a portraiture of the people among ge 

whom the apostles should work. Woes are balanced by 
thanksgivings. The true disciples are shown to be, not 
the wise, but the simple; not the spectators of mighty mir- 
acles, but the meek and lowly of heart. 

Then follows a contrast which penetrates the Samer ts. 
whole range of life. The letter and the spirit 

of the Law are contrasted by the light of Scripture,! of 
reason, of miracle; the kingdom of Satan vik eee 
with the kingdom of God; the sign of Jonas οἰὰ 88. 45. 
with the questionings of the Jews; the kin- Pet ee 
dred of blood with the kindred of the spirit. And at this 


Matt. viii. 1s—ix. 


Matt. ix, 84. 


(c) The Com- 
mission. 


1 The remarkable passage, vv. 5—7, is peculiar to St. Matthew. 


356 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


point, while the multitudes press to hear, the formation 

(e) Paraties of 20d growth of “the kingdom ” in its widest 

the kingdom. relations is explained by analogies from the 
Matt. xiii, 1—52. Te . - - 

natural world,’ rich in instruction for the 

believing, and mere riddles for the faithless? We read 


1 The following are the Parables re- fore in the record of the miracles, and 
corded in St. Matthew, which, it willbe in the general plan of the Gospel. The 
seen, fall into two divisions, which cor- parables peculiar to St. Matthew are 
respond with the Prophetic and Kingly marked by italics: 
aspects of Christ’s character, as seen be- 

1. IMAGES OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHRISTIANITY. 
(a) Its source. 
a. From God. 
The sower (xiii. 8—8). 
ὃ. Yet counterfeited by the devil. 
The tares (xiii. 24—80). 
(Ὁ) Its progress. 
a. In outward extent. 
The mustard-seed (xiii. 31, 82). 
ὃ. In inward influence. 
The leaven (xiii. 33). 
(c) Its relation to men. 
a. Asa gift from heaven. 
The hid treasure (xiii. 44). 
ὃ. As a power in the individual. 
The merchant seeking pearls (xiii. 45, 46). 
c. As a wide-working instrument. 
The drawnet (xiii. 47—50). 
2. IMAGES OF THE LIFE OF MEN. 
(a) Love. 
a. A spontaneous feeling. 
The lost sheep (xviii. 12—14). 
ὃ. A debt due to God. 
The unmerciful servant (xviii. 23—25). 
(0) Dependence. 
The laborers in the vineyard (xx. 1—16). 
(c) Activity. 
a. Obedient in spirit, as of sons of God. 
The two sons (xxi. 28—82). 
b. Unselfish, as of stewards of God. 
The wicked husbandmen (xxi. 883—41). 
(4) Reverence. 
The marriage of the king’s son (xxii. 1—14). 
(e) Responsibility. 
a. At all times. 
The ten virgins (xxv. 1—18). 
b. In all positions. 
The talents (xxv. 14—80). 


2 St. Matthew alone expressly gives planatory of His teaching, wv. 14, 15. 
Christ’s reference to prophecy as ex- It is implied in the other accounts. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 357 


of the Divine power which founds it, and of the simul- 
taneous influence of evil;' of its outward majesty and of 
its inward power; of its objective value and of its subjec- 
tive claims ;? and, lastly, of its universality. On earth con- 
fusion and error prevail to the last, but there will be a day 
of final separation. Christ Himself is no 
prophet in His own country. He does there 
few mighty works because of their unbelief; and yet He 
is preparing to claim His royal inheritance. 

The royal dignity of Messiah is introduced by an inci- 
dent which, but for this connection, appears 
to break the tenor of the history. The tyr- 
anny of an earthly sovereign —the feast of 
Herod and the death of John —stands in 
clear opposition to the love of Him whose 
compassion was moved by the sight of the 
gathered multitudes, so that He healed and fed them in 
the wilderness. Herod, though grieved, works murder; 
Christ saves even beyond the extent of man’s hope. Tem- 
poral dominion presents one side of the con- 
trast: hierarchical dominion, the other. The 
tradition of the elders is set aside as opposing 
the Law of God; and the blessings extended to Jews are 
now symbolically assured to Gentiles, as citizens of the 
future kingdom. The faith of the Canaanite and the 
patience of the waiting multitude win the help which 


Matt. xiti. 55 ff. 


8. The Messiah as 
King. 

Matt. xiv.rxv, 

(a) The charac- 
ter of the King, 
as compared with 
earthly and 


Matt. xiv. 1-33. 


hierarchical  do- 


mainion. 


Matt. xv. 1—29. 


1The real force of this parable 
(24—80) seems to have been lost by not 
attending to the word ὡμοιώϑη, as dis- 
tinguished from ὁμοία ἐστί. The 
Church is subject to outward influence; 
it is made like to some things, as it is 
like to others. Cf. xviii. 28; xxii. 2; 
xxv.1. The full force of (Cava, which 
had the semblance but not the fruit of 
wheat, is well given in the words of 
Origen: Non solum est sermo Christus, 
et est sermo Antichristus: veritas Chris- 
tus, et simulata veritas Antichristus; 
sapientia Christus, est simulata sapi- 


entia Antichristus ...quoniam omnes 
species boni quascunque habet Christus 
in sein veritate ad wdificationem homi- 
num, omnes eas habet in se diabolus 
in specie ad seductionem sanctorum. 
(Comm. in Matt. 33.) 


2 xiii. 45, ὁμοία... avSpémw... (η- 
τοῦντι not ὁμοία μαργαρίτῃ asin v. 44. 
The spirit of the kingdom works in the 
man. In 44, 45, 47, a threefold form of 
image is given, corresponding to a 
threefold aspect of tlie operation of the 
Gospel (ϑησαυρῷ, ἀνθρώπῳ, σαγήνῃ). 


308 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 

excites the surprise of the disciples. Yet even thus it is 
"not given to all to see Christ. The signs of 
the times are unintelligible to the blind of 
heart; while to the faithful God Himself reveals the deep- 
est mysteries. 

St. Peter’s inspired confession opens the way to further 

(Ὁ) Glimpses of glimpses of the kingdom. Yet the earliest 
the Sngdom manifestation of Christ’s glory, like the splen- 

dor of the eastern sky, betokens the coming 

storm. The announcement of shame and 
sorrow and death is the introduction to the vision of 
majesty. The Transfiguration of Messiah is 
connected with the first distinct announce- 
ment of His sufferings, with the prospect of His human 
conflict, and the vindication of His divine right. Thence- 
forth He speaks more in detail of the citizens of the king- 
dom: of their moving principles, obedience, 
humility, unselfishness, forgiveness; and of 
their social characteristics, of the rights of 
marriage, as a religious bond; of the duties of wealth, asa 
blessing derived only from God. Yet all claims of merit 
are excluded. Many first shall be last. The 
warning voice of the parable which closes 
the section shows that our reward rests in God’s good 
pleasure. 

The journey to Jerusalem presents once again the con- 
flict between the hopes of the disciples and 
the work of Christ. Their prayer for dignity 
is answered by the foretelling of suffering; 
and on the other hand, the eyes of the blind are opened, 
though the multitude rebukes them, as they cry for mercy 
to the Son of David.’ The title of Messiah, with which 


Matt. xvi. 1-20. 


Matt. xvi. 24—28, 


Matt. xvii. 21, 26. 


Matt. xvii. 24— 
rviit. 
Matt. xix. 


Matt. ax. 1-16. 


(c) The King 
claims His heritage. 


Matt. xx, 20—84. 


1Jt is worthy of notice that this stores true vision to man. In Mark 


phrase is used in the one other place in 
which sight is restored to the blind at 
their own prayer: Matt. ix. 27. We 
may feel that the act of faith which 
acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah re- 


viii. 22, sight is restored by interces- 
sion; in John ix. 3,4, by a direct act 
of divine merey: so many are the ways 
in which God enlightens us. Cf, Matt. 
xii. 23; xv. 22; xxi. 9, 15. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 359 


the Gospel began, is thus resumed at its close.’ In virtue 
of His royal power He purifies the temple of 
God, and marks by a type the national bar- 
renness of Israel,—a disobedient and faithless people. 
Then follows the conflict. The question of 
cavillers is followed by a portraiture of their 
character. The political objections of the Herodian, the 
intellectual difficulties of the Sadducee, the legal disputes 
of the Pharisee, are answered? A counter 
question closes finally this second Tempta- 
tion; and a triple judgment pronounced on 
the teachers, on the city, on the world, prepares the way for 
the Passion. The record of the public ministry of Christ 
ends where it began, in the teaching of the Law. But 
woes answer to blessings ; the sentence of the Scribes to the 
Sermon to the multitudes: the first had declared the ful- 
filment of the spirit of Judaism, the last exposes the cor- 
ruption of its practice. And when Christ turns to His 
disciples the words of judgment still remain. He destroys 
their present hope of an earthly kingdom by prophesying 
the destruction of Jerusalem; and, yet more, He passes on- 
ward to the end of the outward Christian Church, to that 
final day when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of 
Lis glory, and judge all nations as their King? 


Matt. xxi. 18--22. 


Matt. xxi. 23--xxii. 


Matt. xvii. 41--46, 
Matt, cxiii.--xev. 


The narrative of the Passion, like so much 4. Death, the 
ὃ gate of the Eternal 
else in St. Matthew, proceeds by contrasts, Kivgdom. 


Ε (a) The Passion. 
Calm foreknowledge and restless craft; de- 


votion and treachery; the advance to death and the rash 


promise; the inward agony 


1 The multitudes, and afterwards the 
children, cry: Hosanna to the Son of 
David (Matt. xxi. 9,15). This saluta- 
tion does not occur in the other Gospels. 

2The varicty of language of the 
Evangelists gives a full picture of the 
spirit of Christ's enemies: Matt. xxii. 
18, γνοὺς τὴν πονηρίαν. Mark xii. 15, 
εἰδὼς τὴν ὑπόκρισιν. Luke xx. 23, 
κατανοήσας Thy πανουργίαν. 


and the outward desertion, 


8 Matt. xxy. 31. The whole discourse 
is peculiar to St. Matthew; and this is 
the only place in which our Lord as- 
sumes the title of King. Cf. Matt. v. 
35; xxi. 5; Luke xix. 38; John xix. 
27. 

The reader cf Plato will call to mind 
the magnificent myth of Er the Arme- 
nian (Zoroaster, Clem. Alex. Str. v. § 
104): Resp. x. pp. 614 ff. 


360 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 

heighten the effect of a picture which only familiarity 
can weaken. And the contrast does not end even here. 
The confession of the Lord and the denial of the servant; 
the death of Judas and the death of Christ; the care of 
friends and the vigilance of enemies, carry it 
on to the last with a divine power. Love 
still lingers by the grave which seemed to be closed over 
all hope. 

The history of the Resurrection completes the lesson of 
the whole Gospel. We have passed from the 
spirit of the Mosaic Law to the foundation 
of the Church, and the inspiring strength of the Atone- 
ment. The temporal hopes of the ancient people have 
been gradually replaced by their spiritual antitypes; the 
costly offerings of the Magi by the precious ointment of a 
believing woman; the adoration of sages by the simple 

faith of a despised Canaanite. Yet once 
we rr" 1% again the Lawgiver of the New Covenant 

addressed His disciples from the Galilean 
mountain, but He dwelt no longer on the people of the 
past, but on the Church of the future: the command- 
ments to the men of old were fulfilled in the teaching of 
Christianity. Once again the promised King 
appeared, and received the homage of His 
subjects, but it was as the Lord of heaven and earth, and 
not as the Prince of Israel. Once again the 
Prophet of our Faith spoke comfort to His 
Apostles, while He assured to them the essence of the the- 
ocratic rule in the promise of the abiding presence of Im- 
manuel: Lo, J am with you alway, even to the end of the 
world.’ 


Matt. xvii. 61. 


(b) The Triumph. 


Matt. xxviii. 19. 


swaviit. 20, 


1 The Gospel of St. Matthew is not gelist. Among these the following are 


very broadly characterized in language 
or construction. The style is not nearly 
so Hebraizing as that of St. John, nor 
is the language so rich as that of St. 
Mark. Yet there are some words and 
phrases which mark the Hebrew Eyan- 


the most important : — ῥ 

1. Ἢ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (ΤΞΞ Δ 
ἘΠ 3:Ξπ). The kingdom of heaven, 
which occurs thirty-two times in St. 
Matthew, and not in the other Evan- 
gelists, who use in parallel passages 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 


361 


The Gospel of St. Mark offers a great contrast to that 


of St. Matthew in its general effect. 


peculiarities of language and 


detail which are least observable in St. Mat- 


The 


minuteness of 


II. St. Mark. 
Christ working 
among men. 


thew are most obvious in St. Mark; and, conversely, St. 
Mark offers nothing which answers to the long expositions 


of the Lord’s teaching in St. Matthew. 


This fundamental 


difference is seen at once in the relative pro- 


portion in which the records of miracles and 


The Gospel of 


action. 


parables stand to one another in St. Mark. 


The number of miracles which he gives is 


ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Seo, the kingdom of 
God. (Matt. vi. 88; xii. 28; xxi. 31,48.) 

2. 6 πατὴρ ὁ ἐν οὐρανοῖς (ὃ οὐρά- 
ΨΜιΟ05). which occurs fifteen times in St. 
Matthew, twice in St. Mark, and not 
at all in St. Luke (in xi. 2, it is a false 
reading). Generally it will be observed 
that οἱ οὐρανοὶ is the seat of the heay- 
enly powers; ὁ οὐρανὸς the physical 
heaven. 

3. Yibs Δαυείδ, seven times in St. 
Matthew, three times each in St. Mark 
and St. Luke. 

4. ἡ ἁγία πόλις, the Holy City. 
Matt.iv.5; xxvii.53. Not in the other 
Evangelists. Cf. Matt. xxiv. 15, τόπος 
ἅγιος. Apoc. xi. 2; xxi. 2 (ἡ πόλις ἡ 
ἁγία); xxi. 10. 

δ. ἢ συντέλεια TOD αἰῶνος, the con- 
summation of the age {-“ the end of the 
world”). Matt. xiii. 89 (συντ. αἰ.), 40, 
49; xxiv. 3; xxviii. 20. Hebr. ix. 26, 
συντέλεια τῶν αἰώνων, the mecting of 
the Old and New. Cf. Job xxvi. 10, 
LXX. ap. Schleusn. 

6. ἵνα (ὅπως) πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηϑέν, 
eight times in St. Matthew. Not else- 
where in this form. In St. John, ἵνα 
πληρωδῇ ὃ λόγος (ἡ γραφή); in St. 
Mark once, ἵνα mA. αἱ γραφαί. 

7. τὸ ῥηϑέν twelve times (ὅ ῥηϑείς, 
iii, 8); ἐβῥήϑη six times. Not else- 
where of Scripture (Mark xiii. 14, a 
false reading). Cf. Gal. iii. 16. St. 
Matthew always uses Td ῥηδὲν when 


ΟἹ 
. 


scarcely less 


quoting Scripture himself. In other 
quotations he has γέγραπται, as the 
other Evangelists. He never uses the 
singular γραφή. 

8. καὶ ἰδού (in narrative) in St. Mat- 
thew twenty-three times; in St. Luke 
sixteen; not in St. Mark. 

9. (παρεγένοντο)... λέγοντες abso- 
lutely, without the dative of person. 
Cf. Gersdorf, Beitrage, 95 f. 

10. édvixds, Matt. y. 47; vi. 7; xviii. 
17. Cf. Gal. ii. 14. 

11. ὀμνύειν ἐν. twelve times in St. 
Matthew. Cf. Apoc. x. 6. 

Several other peculiarities collected 
by Credner (Zinl. 87) and Gersdorf 
establish the unity of authorship, but 
do not appear to be obviously charac- 
teristic of the position of the author, 
6. g., ἕως οὗ, πᾶς ὅστις, τάφος, ava- 
χωρεῖν, προσελϑεῖν, μαϑητεύειν, μα- 
Aakia, ἐγείρεσϑαι ἀπό, the position of 
the adverb after the verb, etc. Cf. p. 
351, n. 4. 

Still more characteristic is the intro- 
duction of prophetic passages by the 
Evangelist himself (cf. p. 282, n.1): i. 
23 || Is. vii. 14; ii. 15 || Hos. xi. 1; ii. 18 || 
Jer. XXXvili. 15; ii. 22; tv. 15, 16 | Zs. 
ix. 1,2; viii. 17 || Is. Witt. 4; vii. 18 FF | 
Is. xlii. 1 ff; viii. 85 || Ps. lexvii. 2; 
xxi. 5 || Zech. ix. 9; xxvii. 9, 10 || Zech. 
xi. 13. The general references to Mes- 
siah’s work (distinguished by italics) 
deserve especial notice. 


902 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


than that in the other Synoptic Gospels, while he relates 
only four parables.2 Like St. Peter,’ he is contented to lay 
the foundation of the Christian faith, and leave the super- 
structure to others. It is enough that Christ should be 
presented in the most vivid light, unfolding the truth in 
acts rather than in words; for faith will translate the pass- 
ing deed into an abiding lesson. Everything centres in 
the immediate facts to be noticed. Without drawing a 
complete history, St. Mark frames a series of perfect pic- 
tures. But each is the representation of the outward fea- 


1 The Miracles recorded by St. Mark fall into the following groups: — 
1. SIGNS OF THE SAVIOUR’S WORK (i. 23—ii. 12). 
The devil cast out in the synagogue (i. 283—28.) 
The fever healed in the house (i. 80, 31). 
The leper cleansed (i. 40—45). 
The paralytic pardoned and restored (ii. 3—12). 
2. SIGNS OF THE SAVIOUR’S TEACHING (iii. 1—6; iv. 35—y). 
(a) Freedom of action. 
The withered hand restored on the Sabbath (iii. 1—6). 
(b) Trials of faith. 
The storm stilled (iv. 35—41). 
The legion cast out (v. 1—20). 
The woman with issue healed (v. 25—84). 
Jairus’ daughter raised (v. 21—24, 35—43). 
8. SIGNS OF THE KINGDOM (vi. 80—52; vii. 24—viii. 9, etc.). 
(a) The extent of the Kingdom. 
The satisfaction of the Jews: five thousand fed (vi. 30—44). 
The passage (vi. 45—52). 
The satisfaction of Gentiles: 
The Syrophenician (vii. 24—80). 
The deaf and dumb man (vii. 81—387). 
The four thousand fed (viii. 1—9). 
(δ) Special lessons. 
Discernment. The blind man at Bethsaida (viii. 22—26). 
Faith. The lunatic (ix. 14—29). 
Mercy. Bartimeus (x. 46—52). 
Judgment. The fig-tree (xi. 12—14). 
The most remarkable omission is that Miracles peculiar to St. Mark are dis- 
of the ‘Centurion’s servant.”” The tinguished by italics. 


2 They are the following : — 
(a) Parables of the growth of the Kingdom. 
The sower (iv. 1—20). The seed growing secretly (iy. 26—29). 
The mustard seed (iv. 830—82). 
(b) Parable of judgment. 
The husbandmen (xii. 1—12). 


3 Dr. Stanley’s Sermons on the Apostolic Age, p. 102. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 363 


tures of the scene. For this reason the Evangelist avoids 
all reference to the Old Testament.!| The quotations which 
occur in the Lord’s discourses remain, but after the intro- 
duction he adds none in his own person. The living por- 
traiture of Christ is offered in the clearness of His present 
energy, not as the fulfilment of the past, nor even as the 
foundation of the future. His acts prove that He is both; 
but this is a deduction from the narrative, and not the sub- 
ject of it. 

It follows from what has been already said, that the 
chief point for study in St. Mark’s Gospel is Perr 
the vividness of its details, and not the subor- _ ties of St. Mark to 

: - . - be sought in details. 
dination of its parts to the working out of 
any one idea. The narrative does not, indeed, vary consid- 
erably in its contents from the other Synoptic Gospels, and 
offers several broad divisions which mark successive stages 
in the work of Christ.?, But turning from the construction 


1 The quotation in xy. 28 isan inter- afterwards. It may be noticed that the 
polation. The quotation in i.2,3seems word νόμος never occurs in St. Mark; 
to show that the Evangelist purposely itis frequent in the other Evangelists, 
avoided references to the prophecies but is not found in St. Peter. 

2 The following outline will convey a general notion of the construction of the 
Gospel, and supersede the necessity of examining it in detail: — 

THE PREPARATION. i. 1—18. 


1. THE WorkK FORESHOWN By Acts. i. 14—ii. 12. 
(a) The call (i. 14—20). 
(Ὁ) Signs (i. 21—ii. 12). 
Possession; fever; leprosy; palsy. 
2. OUTLINES OF TEACHING. ii. 18—iv. 34. 
(a) Traits of the new life. 
The call of the publican (ii. 13—17). 
The lesson of prudence (18-—22). 
The Sabbath: Example (ii. 283—28); sign (iii. 1--6). 
(b) The Kingdom of God and the world. 
The apostles (iii. 13—19); the enemies (20—30); the true kin- 
dred (31—35). 
Parables of the Kingdom (iv. 1—34). 
(c) Signs (iv. 85—v.). 
The storm (iv. 85—41); legion (v. 1—20); the woman with issue; 
Jairus’ daughter (21—43). 
(4) The issue: Unbelief (vi. 1—6). 


364 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


of the whole record to the characteristic treatment of sep- 
arate incidents, we are at once struck by the extent and 
importance of the minute peculiarities which St. Mark 
presents. There is not, perhaps, one narrative which he 
gives in common with St. Matthew and St. Luke to which 
he does not contribute some special feature. These pecu- 
liarities are so numerous that they prove his independence 
beyond all doubt, unless we are prepared to admit the only 
possible alternative, that they are due to the mere fancy 
of the Evangelist; a supposition which is sufficiently 
refuted by their character. The details point clearly to 
the impression produced upon an eye-witness, and are not 
such as would suggest themselves to the imagination of a 


3. THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE Kinepom. vi. 6 b—xiii. 
(a) The mission of the Apostles (vi. 6 ὃ--- 18). 
Temporal dominion. 
The feast of Herod: John (vi. 14—29). 
The feast of Christ: Christ on the waters (80—52). 
Hierarchical dominion. 
The tradition of the Elders (vii. 1—23); blessings for the Gen- 
tiles; the Syrophenician; the deaf and dumb; the multi- 
tudes fed (vii. 24—viii. 9). 
Lack of discernment in some (10—21). 
A sign (22—26). 
Revelation to others (27—83). 
(Ὁ) Glimpses of the Kingdom (ix.—x. 81). 
The prospect of suffering (viii. 34—88); the vision of glory (ix. 
1—13); the secret source of strength (14—29). 
The citizens. 
Humility; charity; self-denial (ix. 33—50); marriage; chil- 
dren; riches; sacrifice (x. 1—81). 
(c) The sovereignty claimed (x. 32—xiii). 
The journey (x. 82—52). 
The triumphal entrance (xi. 1—1]). 
The conflict. 
The sign (xi. 12—25); the first question (27—83); the portrai- 
ture (xii. 1—12); the temptation (13—384); the last ques- 
tion (35 -- 87). 
The Pharisees (88—40): the widow (41—44). 
The judgment (xiii). 
4. THE ETERNAL KINGDOM ENTERED THROUGH THE GATE OF DEATH. 
xiv.—xvi. 
The end foreshown by act (xiv. 8—9) and word (12—81). 
The agony; betrayal; denial; condemnation (xiv. 82—xy. 20). 
The crucifixion; burial (xv. 21—47). 
The resurrection; revelation ; ascension (xvi). 


OF TIE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 360 
chronicler. At one time we find a minute touch which 
places the whole scene before τι; at an- 
other time an accessory circumstance, such 
as often fixes itself on the mind, without 
appearing at first sight to possess any special interest ;” now 
there is a phrase which reveals the feeling of those who 
were witnesses of some mighty work ;* now a word which 
preserves some trait of the Saviour’s tenderness,‘ or some 
expressive turn of His language.’ Other additions are 
such as might have been made for the sake of clearness, 
even by one who had no immediate information as to the 


Additions which 
prove direct tnfor- 
mation. 


1 In the enumeration of the chief pe- 
culiarities of St. Mark given in the fol- 
lowing notes, I have not attempted 
more than a rough classification. The 
erroneous views commonly held as to 
the epitomatory character of his Gos- 
pel invest these details with peculiar 
interest, and they will repay careful 
study. 

iv. 87, 83, τὰ κύματα ἐπέβαλλεν 
εἰς τὸ πλοῖον... καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ἐν τῇ 
πρύμνῃ ἐπὶ τὸ προσκεφάλαιον καδϑεύ- 
δων. 

vi. 38. 

vi. 48, καὶ ἤδϑελεν παρελϑεῖν αὐτούς. 

ix. 8. 

ix. 14—16. 

x. 50, 6 δὲ ἀποβαλὼν τὸ ἱμάτιον αὐ- 
τοῦ ἀναπηδήσας ἦλϑεν.. 

xy. 44. 

21.20, μετὰ TOY μισϑωτῶν. 

iv. 86, kal ἄλλα δὲ πλοῖα ἦν μετ᾽ 
αὐτοῦ. 

vi. 41, καὶ τοὺς δύο ἰχϑύας ἐμέρισεν 
πᾶσιν. 

xiv. 51,52. Cf. pp. 286, 323. 

xiv. 8, συντρίψασα τὴν ἀλάβαστρον. 

ὃ yi. 52, οὐ γὰρ συνῆκαν ἐπὶ τοῖς 
ἄρτοις" ἦν γὰρ αὐτῶν ἡ καρδία πεπω- 
ρωμένη. 

viii. 82, παῤῥησίᾳ τὸν λόγον ἐλάλει. 

τ Τῇ, 

χ. 34. of δὲ μαϑηταὶ ἐδαμβοῦντο ἐπὶ 
τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ. 

x. 82, ἣν προάγων αὐτοὺς ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς, 


καὶ ἐδαμβοῦντο, οἱ δὲ ἀκολοδϑοῦντες 
ἐφοβοῦντο. 

xi. 10, Εὐλογημένη ἡ ἐρχομένη βα- 
σιλεία τοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν Δαυείδ. 

Cf. νὶ.8, ὁ τέκτων. 

4 yi. 81, Δεῦτε ὑμεῖς αὐτοὶ κατ᾽ ἰδίαν 

7 / ΦΥ , 2 / 
εἰς ἔρημον τόπον Kal ἀναπαύσασϑε ὀλί- 
γον. 

vi. 34, ἐσπλαγχνίσϑη ἐπ’ αὐτούς 
oe τῇ c 
ὕτι ἦσαν ὡς πρόβατα μὴ 
ἔχοντα ποιμένα. 

viii. 8, καί τινες αὐτῶν ἀπὸ μακρό- 
Sev εἰσίν. 

ix. 21, 25, 27. 

x. 3, 4. 

5 1. 15, πεπλήρωται ὃ καιρός... πισ- 
τεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ. 

. a ae a ν 

iv. 11, ἐκείνοις Tots ἔξω. 

vii. 8, ἀφέντες τὴν ἐντολὴν τοῦ ϑεοῦ 
κρατεῖτε τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν ἀνδρῶπων. 

viii. 88, ἐν τῇ γενεᾷ ταύτῃ τῇ μοι- 

δ « ~ 

χαλίδι καὶ GuapTwA®. 

ix. 12, καὶ πῶς --- ἐξουδενωσῇ ; 

ix. 89, οὐδεὶς ydap.... δυνήσεται 
ταχὺ κακολογῆσαί με. 

, 

x. 21, ἄρας τὸν σταυρόν. 

x. 30. 

xi. 17, οἶκος προσευχῆς κληϑήσεται 
πᾶσιν τοῖς ἔϑνεσιν. 

xi. 24, πιστεύετε ὅτι ἐλά- 
βετε καὶ ἔσται ὑμῖν. 

os 4 oe a € > 
xii. 6, ἔτι ἕνα εἶχεν υἱὸν ἀγαπητόν. 
ass »o\ ef 

xiii. 82, οὐδὲ ὁ vids. 

xiv. 18, 6 éoSiwy μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ. 

xiv. 87, Σίμων καδεύδεις ; 


ol 


366 


THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


events recorded ;! but, on the other hand, there are some 
which indicate yet more distinctly the apostolic source of 


the peculiarities of St. Mark. 


He alone describes on sey- 


eral occasions the look and feeling of the Lord,? and pre- 


serves the very Aramaic words which He uttered? 


He 


records minute particulars of persons, number, time, and 
place,* which are unnoticed by the other Evangelists. 


1 iii. 14, ἵνα ὦσιν μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ ἵνα 
ἀποστέλλῃ αὐτοὺ κηρύσσειν... 

iii. 80, ὅτι ἔλεγον, Πνεῦμα axadap- 
τον ἔχει. 

v. 26, μηδὲν ὠφεληϑεῖσα ἀλλὰ 
μᾶλλον εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ἐλ- 
δοῦσα. 

vy. 20. 

vii. 2—4, . 

xi. 18, 6 γὰρ καιρὸς ovK ἦν σύκων. 

Cf. vi. 18, ἤλειφον ἐλαίῳ πολλοὺς 
ἀῤῥώστους. ν. 4, 5. 


2 iii. 5, [καὶ περιβλεψάμενος αὐτοὺς] 
μετ᾽ ὀργῆς, συλλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ 
πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας λέγει... 

iii. 84, περιβλεψάμενος κύκλῳ τοὺς 
περὶ αὐτὸν καϑημένους λέγει... 

vy. 82, περιεβλέπετο (not aor.) ἰδεῖν 
τὴν τοῦτο ποιήσασαν. 

vi. θ, ἐδαύμαζε διὰ τὴν ἀπιστίαν αὐ- 
τῶν. 

x. 21, ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ 
ἠγάπησεν αὐτόν... 

χ. 28, καὶ περιβλεψάμενος ὃ Ἴη- 
σοῦς... 

xi. 11, καὶ περιβλεψάμενος πάντα... 

Cf. i. 41, 43; (x. 22). 

83 iii. 17, Boavnpyés, ὅ ἐστιν viol 
βροντῆς. 

y. 41, Ταλιϑὰ κοῦμι, ὅ ἐστιν pedep- 
μηνευόμενον, Τὸ κοράσιον, σοὶ λέγω, 
ἔγειρε. 

vii. 11, Κορβᾶν, ὅ ἐστιν δῶρον. (Cf. 
Matt. xxvii. 6). 

vii. 84, Ἐφφαϑά, 8 ἐστιν Διανοί- 
χϑητι. 

xiv. 86, ABBa, ὁ πατήρ. 

Cf. ix. 48; x. 46. 

4 (α) Persons: i. 29, καὶ "Avd. μ. "I. 
καὶ Ἴ. 


i. 86, κατεδίωξαν αὐτὸν Σίμων καὶ of 
μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ. 

ii. 26. 

iii. 6, μετὰ τῶν “Hpwdiavar. 

iii. 22, of γραμματεῖς of ἀπὸ Ἵεροσο- 
λύμων καταβάντες... 

vii. 26. 

xi. 11, μετὰ τῶν δώδεκα. 

xi. 21, dvauynodels ὁ Πέτρος. 

xiii. 8, ἐπηρώτα αὐτὸν κατ᾽ ἰδίαν 
Πέτρος καὶ I. καὶ Ἶ. καὶ ᾽Α. 

xiv. 65, of ὑπηρέται. 

XV. 7. 

xy. 21, τὸν πατέρα °A. καὶ Ῥ. 

xvi. Τ, τῷ Πέτρῳ. 

(Ὁ) Number: ν. 18, @s δισχίλιοι. 

vi. 7, ἀποστέλλειν δύο δύο. 

vi. 40, ἀνέπεσαν πρασιαὶ πρασιαί, 
κατὰ ἑκατὸν καὶ κατὰ πεντήκοντα. 

xiv. 80, πρὶν ἢ δὶ ς ἀλέκτορα φωνῆ- 
σαι τρίς με ἀπαρνήσῃ. 

(c) Time; i. 85, πρωὶ ἔννυχα λίαν. 
Cf. xvi. 2. 

ii. 1, δ ἡμερῶν. 

iv. 85, ἐν ἐκείνῃ TH ἡμέρᾳ ὀψίας γε- 
νομένης. 

vi. 2, γενομένου σαββάτου. 

xi. 11, ὀψίας ἤδη οὔσης. Cf. xi. 19. 

xiv. 68. 

xy. 25, ἦν δὲ ὥρα τρίτη. 

(4) Place: ii. 18, παρὰ τὴν ϑάλασσαν. 
Chai ἀν Weeks 

y. 20, ἐν τῇ Δεκαπόλει. 

vii. 81, ἀνὰ μέσον τῶν ὁρίων Δεκα- 
πόλεως. 

(viii. 10). 

xii. 41, κατέναντι Tod γαζοφυλακίου. 

Xiii. 8, κατέναντι τοῦ ἱεροῦ. 

xiv. 68, εἰς τὸ προαύλιον. 

xv. 89, 6 παρεστηκὼς ἐξ ἐναντίας. 

Xvi. 5, Kad. ἐν τοῖς δεξιοῖς. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 367 


His language and style correspond with this particularity 
of observation. His phrases of transition are 
lively In narration he frequently adopts 
the present for the historic tenses,” and introduces a direct 
for an indirect form of expression.? He couples together 
words or phrases of similar meaning to heighten or define 
his meaning. Like St. John, he repeats the subject in 
place of using the relative.’ And in many cases he uses 
terms of singular force which do not occur elsewhere in 
the New Testament.® 

The few incidents which are peculiar to St. Mark illus- 
trate, as might be expected, the general char- 
acter of his Gospel. The one parable* which 
he alone has preserved turns our attention 
to God’s presence in the slow and silent opera- 
tions of nature, as typical of His constant presence among 
men in their daily life. Of the two peculiar miracles,” one 
lays open the gradual process of the cure wrought ;’ and 
the other exhibits a trait which seems to reveal something 
of the agony of the Redeemer’s work, as leading to the 
last agony at Gethsemane, when He looked up to heaven 
and groaned (ἐστέναξε) in contemplation of the wreck 
which sin had wrought in man, who is ever dull in hearing 
and slow in praising God. The connection of these three 


Style. 


Additional in- 
cidents character- 
istic. 


Mark iv, 26—29. 


1Thus καὶ εὐδύύς occurs, perhaps, 
twenty-seven times (the reading is often 
uncertain) in St. Mark, eight times in 
St. Matthew, and twice in St. Luke. 

21. 40, 44; ii. 3 ff; xi. 1 ff; xiv. 43, 
66, etc. 

8 iy. 89, Σιώπα, πεφίμωσο. 

y. 8, Ἔξελϑε τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀκάϑαρ- 
τον ἐκ τοῦ ἀνδρώπου. 

vi. 23, 81; xii. 6, ete. 

41. 18, ἦν [ἐκεῖ ἐν TH ἐρήμῳ. 

ii. 20, τότε... ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ. 

iii. 29, οὐκ ἄφεσιν ἔχει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα 
ἀλλὰ ἔνοχός ἐστιν αἰωνίου ἁμαρτήμα- 
TOS. 

ἦν. 83, 34; v. 26, etc. 

vi. 25, εὐθὺς μετὰ σπουδῆς. 


a See note, additional, p. 472. 


vii. 21, ZrwSev... ἐκ τῆς καρδίας, 
ete. 

5 ii. 19, 20, 27; iii. 1,3; iv. 15 (cf. Mt. 
and Le.); v. 41, 42; vi. 17, 18 (cf. Mt.); 
x. 13 (οἵ. Mt. and Le.); xiv. 66, 67 (cf. 
Mt. and Le.). 

ὃ ἐκϑαμβεῖσδαι, ix. 15; xiv. 83; xvi. 
5, 6. 

ἐναγκαλίζεσϑαι, ix. 36; x. 16. 

προμεριμνᾶν, xiii. 11. 

συνϑλίβειν, y. 24, 81. 

7 viii 22-26, ἐπιϑεὶς τὰς χεῖρας... 
εἶτα πάλιν ἐπέϑηκεν τὰς χεῖρας. 

8 vii. 81--8ὁ7, Cf. John xi. 85. It is 
remarkable that in both these miracles 
our Lord took the sufferer apart (vii. 33, 


b See note, additional, p. 472. 


368 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


special lessons is surely most significant. Without taking 
away the attention from the outward act, they lead us to 
look at the inmost processes which the outward act reveals. 
Together they give hope and strength for all labor. A 
Saviour sorrows over man’s sufferings and unbelief, and 
meets each advance of faith; a Spirit works within us, 
bringing to maturity by hidden steps the seed which God 
has planted. 

The smaller variations in the narrative offer several fea- 
tures of interest, in addition to those which 
have been already noticed. One of these 
characterizes the whole Gospel. St. Mark, 
more than any other Evangelist, records the effect which 
was produced on others by the Lord’s working. Just as 
he follows out the details of the acts themselves, he men- 
tions the immediate and wider results which they produced. 
From the beginning to the end he tells us of the wonder 
and amazement and fear? with which men listened to the 
teaching of Christ. Everywhere multitudes crowd to hear 
Him,? as well as to receive His blessings. When He 

was in a house, the whole city was gathered 


Additional traits 
in common inci- 
dents. 


Mark i. 83. 
wn “ 4 to the door, and even then the crowd could 
ark te 2 

ok find no room. So great at times was the 
Mark i. 45. δ 


excitement that He could no longer openly 
enter into the city; and it is said twice that, as many 
came and went, He could not even eat,’ so that He seemed 


ἀπολαβόμενος ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄχλου ; iii. 23, 
ἐξήνεγκεν ἔξω τῆς κώμη"). 

One other circumstance in connec- 
tion with Christ’s miracles is noticed 
by St. Mark, that even those who 
“touched the border of His garment 
were made whole” (Mark vi. 56. Cf. 
Luke yi. 19; viii. 46; Acts xix. 12). 


11. 22 (ἐξεπλήσσοντο), 27; vi. 20; xi. 
18; vii. 87 (ὑπερπερισσῶς ἐξεπλ.); x. 
26 (περισσῶς ἐξεπλ.). 

y. 20 (ἐδαύμαζον); ix. 15 (ἐξεϑαμβή- 
ήσαν); x. 24 (ἐδαμβοῦντο). 


y. 42 (ἐξέστησαν ἐκστάσει μεγάλῃ); 
vi. 51 (λίαν ἐκ περισσοῦ ἐξίσταντο). 

iv. 41 (ἐφοβήϑησαν φόβον μέγαν); v. 
15; (ix. 6); ix. 82. 

211. 18, mas ὁ ὄχλος ἤρχετο πρὸς 
αὐτὸν καὶ ἐδίδασικεν αὐτούς (ef. ii. 14, 
15); iv. 1, ὄχλος πλεῖστος; y. 21, 24, 
34; x. 1; xii. 37. 

3 iii. 20, 21, ὥστε μὴ δύνασϑαι αὐτοὺς 
μηδὲ ἄρτον φαγεῖν: καὶ ἀκούσαντες 
οἱ παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ... ἔλεγον ὅτι ἐξέστη. 
yi. 81, ἦσαν οἱ ἐρχόμενοι καὶ of ὑπά- 
γοντες πολλοί, καὶ οὐδὲ φαγεῖν εὐκαί- 
ρουν. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 369 


to His kindred to be beside Himself. Those who were 
healed, in spite of His injunctions, proclaimed abroad the 
tidings of His power.’ And in His retire- 
ment, men from ail the cities ran together on 
foot to see Him; and wherever He went, into 
villages or cities or country, they placed their sick before 
Him; and as many as touched Him were made whole. 

In substance and style and treatment the Gospel of St. 
Mark is essentially a transcript from life? 
The course and the issue of facts are imaged 
in it with the clearest outline. If all other 
arguments against the mythic origin of the Evangelic nar- 
ratives were wanting, this vivid and simple record, stamped 
with the most distinct impress of independence and origi- 
nality, —totally unconnected with the symbolism of the Old 
Dispensation, totally independent of the deeper reasonings 
of the New, — would be sufficient to refute a theory sub- 
versive of all faith in history. The details which were ori- 
ginally addressed to the vigorous intelligence of Roman 
hearers ® are still pregnant with instruction for us. The 
teaching which “met their wants” in the first age finds a 
corresponding field for its action now. It would be worse 
than idle to attempt any general comparison of the effects 
which the several Gospels may be supposed to work upon 


Mark vi. 83. 
Mark vi. 55, 56. 


The importance 
of St. Mark as a 
historical record. 


14.28, 45. ἤρξατο κηρύσσειν πολλὰ 
καὶ διαφημίζειν τὸν λόγον. y. 20; vii. 
80. 

2The following passages may be 
taken as examples of St. Mark’s style 
in connection with the parallel ac- 
counts: vi. 80—48 (The feeding the five 
thousand); ix. 14—29 (The healing of 
the lunatic); and vi. 14—29 (The feast 
of Herod). In each case we have, I 
believe, the testimony of an eye-wit- 
ness. In the Jast some friend of John 
may have been present. 

3 Euseb. HW. Z. iii. 89. Cf. pp. 191, 287. 

One peculiarity of St. Mark’s lan- 
guage not yet noticed seems to point to 
this Roman origin, his use of several 


Latin forms which do not occur in the 
other Gospels: κεντυρίων, xy. 89, 44, 
45 (elsewhere ἑκατόνταρχος, -dpx7s); 
κοδράντης, xii. 42 (Matt. v. 26); σπε- 
κουλάτωρ (vi. 27); τὸ ἱκανὸν ποιῆσαι 
(xv. 15. Cf. Acts xvii. 9}. To these 
may perhaps be added ξέστης (vii. 4, 
8); κράββατος (in St. John and Acts). 
Other words he has in common with 
one or more of the other Evangelists: 
δηνάριον (all); κῆνσος (Mt.); λεγίων 
(Mt. Le.); πραιτώριον (Mt. 5.); φρα- 
γελλοῦν (Mt.). 

In all these notices of St. Mark’s lan- 
guage I have derived great help from 
Credner (Zinl. § 49), though his large 
collections require careful sifting. 


370 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


the Church, but it is impossible not to see some signifi- 
cance in the circumstance that the historic worth of the 
Gospels was then most recklessly assailed when St. Mark 
was regarded as a mere epitomator of the other Synoptists. 
We cannot gain a full perception of the truth till the form 
of its outward revelation is surely realized. The form is 
not all, but it isan element in the whole. The picture of 
the sovereign power of Christ battling with evil among 
men swayed to and fro by tumultuous passions, is still 
needful, though we may turn to St. Matthew and St. John 
for the ancient types or deeper mysteries of Christianity, 
or find in St. Luke its inmost connection with the unchang- 
ing heart of man. 
For “the Gospel of St. Paul”! is in its essential charac- 
teristics the complementary history to that 
ae sof St. Matthew. The difference between the 
two may be seen in their opening chapters. 
The first words of the Hebrew Evangelist gave the clew to 


1 The following outline of the Gospel will serve to explain the connection of 
the several parts: — 
INTRODUCTION. ii. ii. 
The annunciation of the birth of John and of Christ (i. 1—56). 
The birth of John; the nativity; the presentation; Christ with 
the doctors (i. 57—ii). 
1. THE PREPARATION. iii.—iy. 13. 
The work of the Baptist (iii. 1—20). 
The attestation at the baptism and by descent (21—88). 
The trial (iv. 1—18). 
2. Tok ANNOUNCEMENT. iv. 14—44. 
Preaching (14, 15). 
Tidings at Nazareth (16—80). 
Signs; The unclean spirit (81—387); Simon’s wife’s mother (38, 39). 
Many works (40, 41); wide teaching (42—44),. 
3. THE FuTURE CuurcH. y.—ix. 43 a. 
(a) Its universality. 
The sign: the draught of fishes (vy. 1—11). 
The leper cleansed (12—16). 
The paralytic restored (17—26). 
The publican called (27—89). 
The Jaw vindicated from superstition (vi. 1—11). 
(0) Its constitution. 
The apostles called: the Sermon on the mount (vi. 12—49). 
The spring of help. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 871 


his whole narrative; and so the first chapter of St. Luke, 
with its declarations of the blessedness of 
faith and the exaltation of the lowly, lead 
at once to the point from which he contemplated the life 


Luke i. 45, 52. 


Faith in man: the centurion’s servant (vii. 2—10). 
Love in Christ: the widow’s son (11—17). 
The hearers. 
John and the people (18—85). 
The Pharisee and the sinner (86—50). 
The ministering women (viii. 1—3). 
(c) Its development. 
The sower (viii. 4—18). 
Earthly ties (19—21). 
Lessons of faith: the storm stilled (22—25); the legion cast 
out (26 -- 89); the woman healed (48—48); Jairus’ daugh- 
ter raised (40—56). 
(d) Its claims. 
The commission (ix. 1—6); the earthly king (7—9). 
The five thousand fed (9—17); the confession (18—28). 
The transfiguration; the lunatic healed (28—48 a). 
4, THE UNIVERSAL CyuuURCH. THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS FORE- 
SHOWN. ix. 43 b—xviii. 30. 
(a) Preparation (ix. 43 b—xi. 18). 
Coming persecution (48 b—45). Traits of the true disciple (46—62). 
The mission of the seventy (x. 1—20). Thanksgiving (21—24). 
One family of men: the good Samaritan (25—37). 
One thing needful: Mary and Martha (88—42). 
Prayer the strength of life (xi. 1—18). 
(Ὁ) Lessons of warning (xi. 14—xniii. 9). 
Inward: Seven worse spirits (xi. 14—28), 
Sign of Jonah (29—36). 
Pharisaic religion (37—54). 
Outward: Persecution (xii. 1—12). 
Wealth (13—81). 
Life (82—53). 
Signs of the times (54—69). 
The fate of the Galileans (xiii. 1—5). 
The barren fig-tree (6—9). 
(c) Lessons of progress (xiii. 10—xiy. 24). 
The woman (the Church) set free (xiii. 10—17). 
The growth of the Church outward and inward (18—21). 
The duty of effort (22—380). 
The assurance in working (31—35). 
Formalism defeated (xiv. 1—6). 
The poor called (7—14). 
The feast furnished with guests (15—24). 
(4) Lessons of discipleship. 
The completeness of the sacrifice (xiv. 25—35). 
The universality of the offer (xy.), 
Social duties, 


ΘΝ THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


of Him who was to give light to them that sit in darkness 
and in the shadow of death. 'The perfect 
manhood of the Saviour, and the consequent 
mercy and universality of His covenant, is his central sub- 
ject, rather than the temporal relations or eternal basis of 
Christianity. In the other Gospels we find our King, our 
Lord, our God; but in St. Luke we see the image of our 
Great High Priest, made perfect through suf- 
Sering, tempted in all points as we are, but 
without sin, so that each trait of human feeling and natu- 
ral love helps us to complete the outline and confirms its 
truthfulness. 

The pictures of the Infancy, to which the Temple forms 
the background, typify in a remarkable manner this human 

1. the recorder 2A priestly aspect of the life of Christ. 
the Infancy. The circumstances and the place equally 
wwe" turn the thoughts of the reader to the real- 
ities shadowed forth in the old law of sacrifice. The 


Luke i. 79. 


Hebr. ti. 10; iv. 15. 


The stewardship of wealth (xvi.). 
Offences; faith; service (xvii. 1—10). 
(6) The coming end (xvii. 11—xviii. 30). 
The sign: the ten lepers (xvii. 11—19). 
The unexpectedness of Christ coming (20—387). 
The unjust judge (xviii. 1—8). 
Obstacles to faith. 
Self-righteousness; pride; selfishness (9—30). 
δ. THE SOVEREIGNTY CLAIMED. Xvili. 81—xxi. 
(a) The journey. 
Warnings; Bartimzus; Zacchzus; the talents (xviii. 31—xix. 27). 
(δ) The entry (xix. 28—44). 
The work begun (45—48). 
(c) The conflict. The first question (xx. 1—8); the portraiture (9—19); 
the Temptation (20—40); the last question (41—44), 
The Pharisees (45, 46); the widow (xxi. 1—4). 
The judgment (xxi. 5—36). 
The work (37, 38). 
6. THE SOVEREIGNTY GAINED BY DEATH. xxii.—xxiy. 
The end foreshown (xxii. 1—28). 
Divisions within (24—34); dangers without (84—88). 
The agony; betrayal; denial; condemnation (39—7]1). 
The judgment of Herod and Pilate (xxiii. 1—25). 
The crucifixion; burial (26—56). 
The revelation of the risen Saviour (xxiv. 1—48). 
The last charge; the ascension (44—63). 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. Ste 


Saviour Himself—the perfect victim and the perfect 
Priest — received the seal of the first Covenant, and in 
due time was presented in the Temple and 
redeemed from its service. The offering 
was the offering of the poor; and the first blessing was 
mingled with words of sorrow. Years of 
silent growth then followed; and when He 
had arrived at the age of legal maturity’ 
“the child Jesus” went up to the feast, and claimed the 
Temple as His Father’s House, and spoke of other work 
than that in which His life as yet was spent. But 
while the future was thus mysteriously fore- 
shown, for the present He was subject to His 
earthly parents, and increased in wisdom and stature, and 
in favor with God and men. The development of the 
divine consciousness in Him who was indeed God is 
described to us as it proceeded according to the laws of 
human life. At each successive stage in the long prepara- 
tion for His work, from first to last, we mark the gradual 
and harmonious revelation of His double nature. His God- 
head and Manhood — signs of triumph and suffering -—— are 
united at the Nativity, the Presentation, the Examination 
in the Temple, the Baptism, the Temptation; for all is 
order and truth in the Godlike life, quickening and quick- 
ened in due measure.” 

The main contents of St. Luke’s Gospel may be divided 
into several groups which present distinctive 
features, though each one passes so gradually "i % “lrets 
into the next as to afford no clear line of de- Gy Eee) 
marecation. A general announcement of Christ’s work 
forms an introduction to the more detailed narrative. 


Luke ii. 84, 35. 


Luke ii. 40. 
Luke ti. 41 ff. 


Luke ti. 52. 


2. The annovnce- 


1 Chagiga (ap. Wetst. ad Lue. ii. 42): tantum tempore preparate sunt vie et 
A xii. anno filius censetur maturus. directe semitx, sed usque hodie adven- 
Joma. (id.): Ab anno xii. initiabant tum Domini Salvatoris spiritus Joannis 
pueros ad jejunandum. Tradition as- virtusque precedit. O magna mysteria 
signed this age as the crisis in the lives Domini et dispensationis ejus! Angeli 
of Moses, Samuel, and Solomon (Wetst. precurrunt Jesum: angeli quotidie aut 
ἐ. ο.). Cf. [Hipp.] adv. Her. p. 156. ascendunt aut descendunt super salutem 

2 Origen, Hom. iy. in Luc. Non illo hominumin Christo Jesu. Cf. Johni.dl. 


ως 


ae 


oT THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 
This announcement differs characteristically from that in 
St. Matthew. In St. Matthew the preach- 
ing of the Lord is connected with the ful- 
filment of prophecy; in St. Luke it is pre- 
sented in its own power. In δύ. Matthew the first dis- 
course is the Sermon on the Mount, in which Christianity 
is displayed in its relation to Judaism; in St. 
Luke, the discourse at Nazareth, in which the 
Gospel is freely offered to the poor, the desolate, and the 
stranger. The first miracles in St. Matthew 
signify the removal of legal impurity and 
national distinctions; while in St. Luke the message of 
mercy is confirmed by the deliverance of captives from 
spiritual and bodily infirmity, from evil active 
and personal? within them. 

In the succeeding chapters the work thus outlined is 
described under two great heads. The first 
(v.—1x. 43 a) contains a view of the future 
Church; the second the teaching of Christ, 
leading to the call of a new people and the rejection of 
the Jews. The first is chiefly a record of miracles ;? the 


Hatt. iv. 14 ff. 
Luke iv. 15, 


Luke iv. 16 ff. 


Matt. viii. 1, 5. 


Luke iv. 31, 38. 


Two great divis- 
tons of the Gospel. 


1 Luke iy. 35, 89 (ἐπετίμησεν). The 
word occurs of the fever in St. Luke 
only. Cf. viii. 24 and parallels. 

These two miracles were wrought on 
the Sabbath (iv. 16); and hence we may 
see that spiritual and bodily maladies 
are so far healed by Christ as they in- 


terfere with religious life. In charac- 
ter the two miracles are complement- 
ary: there was an unclean spirit in the 
synagogue, and a faithful woman su 
fering (ἦν συνεχομένη) at home from 
a great fever. 


2 The spiritual teaching of the miracles in St. Luke, asa whole, will be seen 


from the following table. 
Italics: — 


The miracles peculiar to St. Luke are marked by 


1. SIans oF THE Mission OF THE SAVIOUR (iv. 18) —GENERALLY TO 
CHECK THE ACTION OF EVIL. 


(a) Spiritual. 


The unclean spirit cast out (iv. 33—387). 


(b) Physical. 


TPeter’s wife’s mother healed (iy. 38, 39). 


2. Tur CHRISTIAN SOCIETY. 
(a) Its universality: 
Hence Christ 


The miraculous draught of fishes (vy. 4—11). 


a. Purifies the outward life. 
The leper cleansed (Vv. 12—14), 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 375 


second a record of parables.'. In the one we read the 
works of the Son of God; in the other the words of the 


b. Purifies the inward life. 
The palsy healed (vy. 18—26). 
c. Quickens deadened energies. 
The withered hand restored (vi. 6—11). 
(Ὁ) The spring of its blessings. 
a. Faith in man. 
The centurion’s servant (vii. 2—10). 
ὃ. Love in Christ. 
The widow’s son raised (vii. 11—17). 
(c) The fulness of Christ’s power to preserve it, as seen in His sover- 
eignty Over 
a. Matter. 
The storm stilled (viii. 22—25). 
ὃ. Spirit. 
The Gadarene demoniacs (viii. 26—89). 
6. Death. 
Typical: the woman with issue (viii. 43—48). 
Natural: Jairus’ daughter raised (viii. 41—56). 
(4) The extent of its claims. 
a. To instruct and strengthen all. 
The five thousand fed (ix. 10—17). 
ὃ. To overcome by faith all evil. 
The lunatic healed (ix. 87—42). 
8. SIans or CHRIST’S WORKING ON MEN. 
(a) To give utterance to the spiritually dumb. 
The dumb devil cast out (xi. 14—26). 
(b) To remove 
a. The inward checks to our progress. 
The woman with a spirit of infirmity (xiii. 11-17). 
b. The outward obstacles to it (v. 5). 
The man with the dropsy (xiv. 1—6). 
(c) To cleanse impurity, outward and inward (v. 19). 
The ten lepers cleansed (xvii. 12—19). 
(4) To restore spiritual sight. 
The blind man restored (xviii. 85—43). 
[The healing of Malchus: xxii. 50, 51.] 
The miracles recorded by St. Mat- 


of notice because they symbolize the 
thew and St. Mark which are omitted 


call of the Gentiles. But the charac- 


by St. Luke are: The walking on the 
sea; the healing of the Syropheenician’s 
daughter; the feeding of the four thou- 
sand; the barren fig-tree. The omis- 
sion of the last three is the more worthy 


ter of St. Luke’s Gospel is to be sought 
in its general tone. The message which 
it conveys is universal, and not exclu- 
sive in any sense. 


1 The parables in St. Luke illustrate the general course of his narrative. 


1. THE FOUNDATIONS. 


(a) Love: the two debtors (vii. 41—438). 

(b) Productiveness: the sower (viii. 4—15). 

(c) Charity: the good Samaritan (x. 380—387). 

(4) Importunity in prayer: the friend at midnight (xi. 5—8). 


376 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


Son of Man. The miraculous draught of fishes, combined 
with the prayer of St. Peter and the promise 
3. The future 


Church. Itsuniver- of the Lord, is a perfect introduction to the 
sality. (Luke v.1 


—vi. 11.) doctrine of the Church. Its first character- 
Luke v. 8, 10. aie 2 = * τ ᾿ - 
istic is universality; and the idea which is 
thus announced is continuously unfolded in a series of acts 
Pea | 1 whiehyChrist triumphs over physical un- 
oe cleanness, moral guilt, social degradation, and 
uke vi. 1—11. as 
legal superstition. 
The extent of the new Covenant having been thus set 
forth, we next observe something of the 
Its constitution. δ ὰ ‘A Sage! 
(Luke vi. 2-viti, nature of the society in which it is embodied. 
8.) : : ; 
The selection and instruction of the Apostles 
marks them as men who do not take their stand on the 


2. Lessons OF WARNING. 
(a) Dependence: the rich fool (xii. 16—21). 
(δ) Faithfulness: the servants (xii. 85—48). 
(c) Fruitfulness: the barren fig-tree (xiii. 6—9). 
8. LESSONS OF PROGRESS. 
(a) Outward growth: the mustard seed (xiii. 18, 19). 
Inward change: the leaven (xiii. 20, 21). 
(Ὁ) The humble exalted: the chief seats (xiv. 7—11). 
The poor called: the great supper (xiv. 12—24). 
4. Lessons oF DISCIPLESHIP. 
(a) The rational sacrifice. 
The tower-builder (xiv. 28—80). 
The king going to war (xiy. 31—88). 
(Ὁ) The universal offer. 
The guideless wanderer from the Church: the lost sheep (xv- 
3—7). 
The lost slumberer in the Church: the lost drachma (xv. 8—10). 
The wilful apostate from the Church: the prodigal son (xv. 
11—82). 
(c) Social duties. 
In the use of outward blessings. 
Prudence: the unjust steward (xvi. 1—12). 
Charity: the rich man and Lazarus (xvi. 19—81). 
Service no ground of merit: wnprofsitable servants (xvii. T—10). 
5. Lessons or JUDGMENT. 
(a) The injured heard at last: the wnjust judge (xviii. 1—8). 
(Ὁ) Man’s judgment reversed: the Pharisee and publican (xviii. 9—14). 
(c) The Christian rewarded according to his work: the talents (xix. 
11—27). 
(4) The retribution of the wicked: the wicked husbandmen (xx. 9—16)- 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 377 


fulfilment of the Law, but on the wider basis of Christian 
charity... The events which follow illustrate the source of 
their power and the character of those among whom they 
have to work. Faith on the part of man, 
and love on the part of Christ, are shown to 
bring blessings beyond all hope. John and 
the people, the Pharisee and the sinner,’ 
exhibit the contrasts of Jewish life. And the 
notice of the ministering women aptly closes the section 
which opens with the call of the Apostles. The Teacher, 
who included in His Church the humble, the distressed, 
and the repentant, is attended by the weak and loving 
rather than by a council of elders, a band of warriors, or a 


Luke vii. 2—10; 
11--17. 

Luke vii. 18—35; 
86—50. 

Luke viii. 1—3. 


school of prophets.* 


Such being the breadth and foundation of the Christian 
society, we are led to regard the process of 


its development, and the nature of the claims 


Its development. 
(Luke viii. 4—56.) 


which it makes on those who are admitted to 


its privileges. 


The parable of the sower is presented — 


under a new aspect in St. Luke; it exhibits the responsi- 
bility of the hearers of the Gospel,‘ and does not, as in St. 
Matthew, form an introduction to a general 


view of the outward kingdom. 


Luke viii. 16—18; 


᾿ ᾿ 
Hence; next, «4 


we are taught the obligation of Christian 
example and the omnipotence of religious duty; and to 


1 This follows from a comparison of 
Luke vi. 20—49 with St. Matthew’s 
record of the Sermon on the Mount. 
As to the identity of the two discourses 
see p. 351 n. 6. 

2 The lesson of love is the first para- 
ble recorded by St. Luke, as the draught 
of fishes is the first miracle. 

8 Evans, Scripture Biography, ii. p. 
268. Exod. xviii. 25 (Moses); 2 Sam. 
xxiii. 8 ff. (David); 2 Kings ii. 2, 7 ( Eli- 
jah). The apostles themselves offer a 
contrast scarcely less striking than the 
women. 

4 This difference in the scope of the 


parable is indicated by vv. 8, 15, com- 
pared with Matt. xiii. 8—23. St. Luke 
dwells on the single idea of productive- 
ness, and does not regard the different 
degrees of productiveness which must 
exist in the Christian church. This 
idea is afterwards given in the pounds 
(xix. 12 ff.); and conversely St. Mat- 
thew notices only equal productiveness 
in the talents (xxv. 14 ff.). 

The comparison of Matt. xiii. 13 (ὅτι) 
with Luke viii. 10 (ἵνα) is full of instrue- 
tion: spiritual deafness is at once the 
cause and the result of not listening to 
God's yoice. 


32% 


378 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 

encourage men in the varied struggles of Christian life, a 
series of miracles attests the Saviour’s power 
over matter, spirit, and death. He supplies 


Luke viii. 22—25; 
26—39; 40—56. 


ἐπ ela the strength when He enjoins the task. 
- SS a. . 

Luke ix.1-¢;10 When He sends forth His apostles He endues 
—li. 


them with power. When they return, He 
feeds the hungry multitude, lest they should despair from 
the inadequacy of their natural powers for the conversion 
of the world. The prospect of suffering is relieved by the 
vision of glory; and when evil prevails 
against them, He still casts out the unclean 
spirit which baffles their doubting efforts. 

The second great division of the record of the Lord’s 
ministry, includes a remarkable series of acts 


Luke ix. 23—36. 
Luke ix. 87—48 a. 


4. The universal 


ΣΥΝΗ͂Ν and discourses which are grouped together 
9 Σ 5 5 
The Great Epi- 1 connection with the last journey to Jerusa- 
sode. 
au) ~—s dem.’ Some of the incidents occur in differ- 


ent connections in the other Evangelists; and 
the whole section proves, by the absence of historical data 


1 The connections of time in this 
great episode (ix. 43 b—xviii. 14) de- 
serve particular attention, especially in 


I. Sections including parallels with 
the other Gospels. 
(a) In short sayings or parts of dis- 


reference to those sections which occur 
in the other Evangelists in a different 
context. These parallels for the most 
part consist in short and weighty say- 
ings, such as are constantly repeated, 
even by writers in different works; and 
there is no difficulty in supposing that 
they were introduced by the Lord into 
different discourses. More rarely par- 
ables recur in new relations; and in 
one case incidents, alike in every par- 
ticular, are found to occupy a different 
position in St. Luke from that which 
they occupy in St. Matthew. Besides 
these partial or complete parallels, 
there are a large number of sections 
peculiar to St. Luke. The following 
table of passages, with the particles of 
connection by which they are intro- 
duced, will place the question fairly 
before the reader: 


courses. 

x. 1-16 (μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα). Cf. Matt. 
ix. 87, 38; x. 10—16; xi. 21-23; x. 40. 
Luke ix. 1 ff. 

xi. 1-- (καὶ ἐγεν. ἐν τῷ εἶναι ad. ἐν 
Τ. τ. προσ.). Cf. Matt. vi. 9—13. 

xi. 5—13 (καὶ εἶπεν). Cf. Matt. vii. 
1--11. ᾿ 

xi. 29-36 (τῶν δὲ ὄχλων ἐπαϑροιζο- 
μένων). Cf. Matt. xii. 88—42; v. 15; 
vi. 22, 28. Luke viii. 16. 

xi. 37-54 (ἐν δὲ TG λαλῆσαι). 
Matt. xxiii. 

xii. 1-12 (ἐν ois). Cf. Matt. xvi. 6; 
x. 28—33, ete. 

xii. 2240 (εἶπεν δέ... Διὰ τοῦτο). 
Cf. Matt. vi. 


Cf. 


Xii. 41—53 (εἶπεν δὲ 6 Πέτρος). Cf. 
Matt. xxiv. 45 ff. 
xii. 54-59 (ἔλεγεν δέ. Cf. Matt. 


xvi. 2, 8, etc. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS, 379 


and the unity of its general import, that a moral and not 
a temporal sequence is the law of the Gospels. For it is 
possible to trace throughout this part of the narrative a 
contrast between the true and the false people of God, 
between the spiritual and the literal 15.861} The shadow 
of eclipse is seen to rest already on the old system and the 


old spirit. 


A new covenant and a new dis- 
cipleship are ushered in by words of warning 


Preparation. 
Luke ix. 43 b—56. 


and reproof. The journey, which seemed to 


be for honor, is announced to be for death. 


The intolerant 


zeal of St. John is checked when he would have restrained 


xiii. 22—80 (εἶπεν δέ tis). Cf. Matt. 
vii. 13, etc. 

xiii. 31-35 (ἐν αὐτῇ TH ἡμέρᾳ). ΟΥ̓. 
Matt. xxiii. 37—39. 

xiv. 25—35 (συνεπορεύοντο δὲ αὐτῷ 
ὃ. π.). Cf. Matt. x. 81, ete. 

xvii. 1-- (εἶπεν δέ). Cf. Matt. xviii. 
6, 7; 21, 22. 

xvii. 22—37 (εἶπεν δέ). Probably the 
same discourse as Matt. xxiv. 

(δ) In parables and longer discourses. 

ix. 46 ff. (εἰσῆλϑεν δέ) = Matt. xviii. 
1m. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ Spa. Mark ix. 33 ff. 

x. 21-24 (ev αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ) = Matt. 
xi. 25 (ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ καιρῷ). 

xiii. 18--21 (ἔλεγεν οὖν). Matt. xiii. 
81,32. Mark iv. 30—32. 

xiv. 16—24 (6 δὲ εἶπεν [ἑνὶ τῶν συν- 
avak.]). A variation recurs Matt. xxii. 
1—14. 

xv. 8—7 (εἶπεν δέ). Matt. xviii. 12 
—i4. 

(c) In incidents. 

ix. 49(5€). Mark x. 38 (δέ). 

ix. 57 (kal πορευομένων αὐτῶν ἐν 
τῇ ὁδῷ). Matt. viii. 18. 

xi 14 (καὶ ἦν ἐκβ. δ.). Matt. xii, 22 
(τότε). 

xviii. 15—17 (προσέφερον δέ). Matt. 
xix. 18 (τότε): Mark x. 13 (καὶ προσ... 
II. Sections peculiar to St. Luke. 

ix. 51—56 (ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ συμπληρ. 
τ. ἧμ. τ. ἄναλ. αὐὖ.). 

x. 17—20 (ὑπέστρεψαν δέ). 

x. 25—87 (καὶ ἰδού). Not the same as 
Matt. xxii. 84 ff.; Mark xii. 28 ff. 


x. 88--42 (ἐγένετο δὲ ἐν τῷ πορεύ- 
εσϑαι). . 

xii. 13—21 (εἶπεν δὲ τις αὐτῷ ex τοῦ 
ὄχλου). 

xiii. 1-5 (παρῆσαν δέ τινες ἐν αὐτῷ 
τῷ καιρῷ). 

xiii. 6--9 (ἔλεγεν δέ). 

xiii. 10—17 (ἦν δὲ διδάσικων). 

xiv. 1-18 (καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ ἐλϑεῖν 
εἰς οἶκον). 

xv. 8—10; 11—82 (εἶπεν δέ). 

xvi. 1—13 (ἔλεγεν δέ). Cf. Matt. vi. 
24. 
xvi. 14—81 (ἤκουον δέ... καὶ εἶπεν). 
Cf. Matt. ν. 18. 

xvii. 5—10 (καὶ εἶπαν). 

xvii. 11--19 (καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ πο- 
ρεύεσδϑαι αὐ. εἰς ‘I.). 

xviii. 1--8 (ἔλεγεν δέ). 

xviii. 9—14 (εἶπεν δέ). 

Of all these passages one only is at- 
tended with any serious difficulty — 
Luke ix. 57, compared with Matt. viii. 
18. The historical order appears to be 
that given by St. Luke. In all the 
other cases of parallelism we find repe- 
titions which are perfectly natural, and 
borne out by repetitions which occur in 
the same Gospel. It does not, how- 
ever, appear that the difference between 
ἔλεγεν and εἶπεν as introductory words 
is so clear as to admit of being urged: 
Xiv. 7, 12; xvi. 5; yet see iii. 7; iv. 223 
y. 36, ete. 

1 This has been pointed out by Mr, 
Browne, Ordo Sceclorum, p. 688, n. 1. 


380 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


the progress of good because it was advanced by one “ who 
followed not with them.” St. James and St. John are 
rebuked when they would call down fire on the enemiés 
of Jerusalem, though the Son of Man came to save men’s 
lives and not to destroy them. For the 
Christian there is no shelter, no delay, no 
After this introduction the fuller development 

of the new dispensation begins with the 

mission of the Seventy, and not with the 
mission of the Apostles. Its groundwork, from the point 
of sight of St. Luke, is the symbolic evangelization of 
every nation upon earth,' and not the restoration of the 
twelve tribes of Israel. The mission is closed 
by thanksgiving; and as a comment upon 
the tidings with which the teacher was charged, we read 
that the spirit of the Law was fulfilled by 
a Samaritan, that the truest devotion was 
shown by the patient listener who was not cumbered with 
much serving, that prayer, even if the answer 
be delayed, will in the end triumph over all 
difficulties. Then follow lessons of warning, 
of progress, of discipleship, of judgment. 
Perils from within and from without are laid 


Luke iz. 57—62. 
retreat. 


Luke x. 1—16. 


Luke x. 21—24. 


Luke ir. 80---87, 


Luke 5;. 32—42. 

Luke xi. 1—13. 

Lessons of warn- 
tag. 

Luke xi. 14—28. 

Luke xi. 29—86; 


87-54. 

ute wi 1-12) open, perils from the lack of God’s Spirit, 
3-53. : ie 

Luke wii, 54, from wonder-seeking and Pharisaism, from 
Luke siti. 9. 


persecution and worldly cares. The times 
are shown to be pregnant with signs of ruin; 
and yet, in the midst of this stern teaching, 
the “ multitude rejoices.” In spite of opposi- 
tion the growth of the Church is assured. 
If some are rejected, others from afar shall fill their places. 


Luke xiii. 17. 

Luke xiii. 18—30, 

Lessons of prog- 
ress. 

Luke xiii. 31—35. 

Luke xiv. 1—24. 


In the text 


1 According to Jewish tradition there 
were seventy (Clem. Hom. xviii. 4; cf. 
Gen. xlvi. 27) or seventy-two (Clem. Al. 
Strom. i. § 142; Clem. Recogn. ii. 42. 
Deus... in Ixxii. partes divisit totius 
terre nationes, eisque principes (Dan. 
x. 13) Angelos statuit.) different nations 


and tongues in the world. 
of St. Luke ἑβδομήκοντα δύο is very 
highly supported. 

The numbers twelve and seventy are 
combined, Numb. xxxiii. 9. Cf. Ori- 
gen, Hom. xxvii. in Num. § 11, for an 
interpretation of the passage. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 381 


Even death itself cannot forestall the completion of the 
appointed work. Formalism is silenced; the poor are 
ealled, and the feast, which was despised by those who 
were first invited, is furnished with guests. 

The character of the true guest is next de- Rr a ie 
scribed in a series of parables which portray = 7ue2, 
in the liveliest images the completeness of be s™—#™ 
the sacrifice required of him, the universality 

of the invitation offered, the relative duties of disciples to 
one another. The quickening power of God and the fruit- 
ful struggles of penitence are pictured in the case of those 
who have been lost from Christ’s fold! through careless- 
ness, or have lain inactive in His Church 
from darkness, or have wilfully joined them- 
selves with the citizen of a far country. The obligations 
of wealth and station, the duty of forbearance, and the 
power of faith, are seen to guide the Christian in social 
life; and when every claim is fulfilled he is 
still taught to feel that he is an unprofitable 
servant. 


Luke xv. 15. 


Luke xvii. 10. 


The tokens of judgment grow clearer as we draw to the 
close of the section. Among the ten lepers Zessons of judg- 
who were healed, a Samaritan alone returned ™"" 

: . Luke xvii. 18. 
to give glory to God. If the Pharisees ask ὁ 
when the kingdom of heaven shall come, they are told 
that it is already within them. The day of i 
5 : Luke xvii. 24. 
vengeance for the elect is promised gwickly Luke aviii. 1-8. 
“19 . : . Luke xviti, 9-80. 
(v. 8). Humility, childliness, and self-sacrifice 
—the opposites of prevalent vices —are set forth as the 
conditions of entrance into the kingdom; and if the words 
seem hard, one sentence marks the cause of 
the difficulty which men felt and the remedy 


for it: That which is impossible with men is possible with 
God. 


Luke xviii. 27. 


1 The difference between Luke xv.4, νη ἢ éy...marks the different as- 
Tis ἄνϑρωπος... ἀπολέσας ἕν... pects of the parable in the two Gos- 
and Matt. xviii. 12, "Eav...m7Aa- pels. 


382 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 

The narrative of the Journey and the Conflict follows 
the same general outline as in the other Gos- 
pels, but with some characteristic additions. 
Zaccheus, a publican and a sinner, was 
deemed worthy to entertain the Son of God and _ pro- 
nounced to be ὦ son of Abraham. And as 
we noticed in St. Matthew that his first strain 
was repeated at the close of his Gospel, so in St. Luke the 
angelic hymn which was earliest sung in heaven in honor 
of the Saviou’s birth, is reéchoed by the band of disciples 
as He approaches Jerusalem for the last time before the 


5. The kingdom 
claimed. 


Luke xix. 9. 


close of His work2 


Yet again we hear the same peculiar 


tones of mercy and love on the road to Cal- 


Luke σα ϊῖϊ. 3: De 


Luke xxiv. 49. 


vary, and from the very cross, and once 


more, when the risen Lord promises to His 
disciples His Spirit from on high before they preach the 


Word ¢o all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’ 


1 The following are the most remark- 
able additions to common narratives 
(besides those already noticed) which 
occur in St. Luke: 

iii, 1, Z, the date of John’s ministry. 

iii. 5, 6, (ὕψεται πᾶσα σὰρξ τὸ 
σωτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ). 

iii. 10—14. The social differences and 
duties of John’s hearers. 

iv. 1, πν. ay. TA. 

iy. 6, 18, ἄχρι καιροῦ. 

iy. 14---80. 

iv. 85, μηδὲν βλάψαν αὐτόν. 

iv. 42, 48, καὶ οἱ ὄχλοι --- ἀπέσταλ- 
μαι. 

vi. 8, αὐτὸς δέ ---- αὐτῶν. 
δέ ----ἀν. 

vi. 12, καὶ ἦν διανυκτ. ἐν τ. προσ. 
τοῦ Θεοῦ. 

vii. 20, 21; 29, 30. 

viii. 1—8, 47, ἐν π. τοῦ λαοῦ. 

viii. 2, κηρ. τὴν Bao. τοῦ Θεοῦ. 

ix. 29, ἐν τῷ προσ. αὐτόν. 

ix. 81,82; 44, ϑέσϑε ὑμεῖς... τ. Δ. τ. 
Cf. xxi. 14. 

xviii. 81, καὶ TEA. — τῷ ὕ. τ. ava. 

xviii. 34, καὶ ἦν τ. p. τ. κεκρ. --- τὰ 
λεγ. 


11, αὐτοὶ 


From first 


xix. 37—40, 41—44. 

xx. 16, ἀκουσ. δὲ ef. μὴ γένοιτο. 

<. 20, εἰς τὸ mapad. — τοῦ ἥγεμ. 

. 26, καὶ οὐκ ἴσχ. -- ἐν. τοῦ λαοῦ. 
<. 84, of ul. — ἐκγαμ. 

xx. 58, πάντες γὰρ αὐτῷ ζῶσιν. 

xx. 39, 40. 

xxi. 24, 34—36, 87, 38. 

xxii. 8, εἰσ. δὲ ὁ 5. els Ἶ. 

xxii. 15—18, 24---88, 48, 44, 45. 

2 Luke xix. 88—40, ἐν οὐρανῷ εἰρήνη 
καὶ δόξα ἐν ὑψίστοις. Cf. ii. 
14. Peace ratified in heaven is the 
pledge of peace to be realized on earth. 

3 The view which has been given of 
St. Luke’s Gospel as containing the 
offer of the Gospel to all— not to Jews 
only nor Gentiles only — is remarkably 
confirmed and explained by his “later 
treatise.” For as in the one we mark 
the universality of Christ’s promises, so 
in the other we see their full accom- 
plishment. In the outset of the Acts 
(Acts ii. 9—11) we are told that Jews 
and proselytes, from Arabia to Pontus 
—from Parthia to Rome—heard the 
tidings of salvation in their own 
tongue; and the last glimpse of apos- 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 


to last the same great subject abides. 


883 


The Gospel of the 


Saviour begins with hymns and ends with 


praises; and as the thanksgivings of the 


Luke xxiv. 53, 


meek are recorded in the first chapter, so in the last we 
listen to the gratitude of the faithful." 


tolic history is full of encouragement 
and hope, when it is recorded (Acts 
xxviii. 31) that, after furning to the 
Gentiles, Paul received all that came 
unto him, and preached with all confi- 
dence the things which concern the Lord 
Jesus, no man forbidding him. 

Those writers who regard the book 
of the Acts as partial and incomplete, 
seem to have mistaken its entire pur- 
pose; for we do not require for our 
spiritual guidance a history of the 
Apostles, but a record of the establish- 
ment of the Christian Church. The 
title is not the Acts, but Acts of the 
Apostles (πράξεις τῶν ἀποστόλων) -- 
such acts as should be significant to 
future times; and so we read in the 
book of all the modes of thought which 
Christianity encountered in Juda, 
Asia, Greece, and Rome; we learn from 
ἂν .ow far the Apostles modified the 
framework of our faith to build up 
the several Churches, and how far they 
selected a fit foundation for their teach- 
ing from the popular belief. The Gos- 
pels do not give us a life of Jesus, but 
a narrative of man’s redemption; the 
Acts does not detail the fortunes of 
men, but sets forth the establishment 
of the various forms of Christian truth. 

1 The language of St. Luke presents 
many peculiarities, some of which are 
characteristic; and a large number of 
words are common to the Gospelf and 
the Acts, and do not occur elsewhere 
in the New Testament. The following 
peculiarities are the most remarkable : 

(1) Χάρις (χαριτόω, i. 28) eight times. 
Elsewhere in Gospels only John i. 14, 
16,17. Common in Acts and Epistles. 

(2) σωτήρ, i. 47; 11. 11 (John iv. 42). 
σωτηρία, 1. 69, 71,77; xix. 9 (John iv. 
22). τὸ σωτήριον, ii, 80; iii. 6. Gen- 


eral in Acts and Epistles. Σώζειν fre- 
quent throughout the New Testament. 

(3) Εὐαγγελίζεσϑαι (Matt. xi.5 only) 
ten times. Frequent in Acts and Epis- 
tles. Εὐαγγέλιον (Matt., Mark, Acts, 
Epp., Apoc.) does not occur in the Gos- 
pels of St. Luke and St. John, nor in 
St. John’s Epistles. 

(4) πλῆδϑος eight times in Gospels, 
seventeen times in Acts; elsewhere in 
the New Testament seven times. ™An- 
pns with gen. (Jobn i. 14. Cf. Mark 
viii. 19)iv.1; v.12; eight timesin Acts. 
πλῆσαι, metaph. (εἴ. ἐμπλῆσαι) six 
times in Gosp., nine times in Acts; not 
elsewhere. πληροῦν throughout the 
New Testament. 

(5) ὑπάρχειν seven times in Gosp., 
twenty-four times in Acts, fourteen 
times elsewhere; not in other Gospels 
(τὰ ὑπάρχοντα, Matt. xix. 21; xxiv. 
47; xxv. 14. In St. Luke eight times). 
προυπάρχειν in Gosp. and Acts once. _ 

(6) mats (Θεοῦ) of David, Israel, 
Christ, i. 54, 69; Acts iii. 18, 26; iv. 25, 
27, 30. 

(7) ἱκανός nine times in Gosp., eigh- 
teen times in Acts, three times each in 
Matt. and Mark; elsewhere six times. 

(8) οἶκος, metaph. (Matt. x. 6; xv. 
24, oi. lop.) seven times in Gosp., nine 
times in Acts. 

(9) νομικός (Matt. xxii. 85; Tit. iii. 13 
only) six times in Gosp. ἐπιστατής 
(= ‘Pa8Bel) six times; not elsewhere. 
GANS@s with λέγω (= ἀμήν) three times 
in Gosp.; not elsewhere. 

(10) ὕψιστος (as an epithet of God) 
five times in Gosp., in Acts twice; else- 
where Mark v. 7; Hebr. vii. 1. 

(11) Peculiar words (@) found only in 
St. Luke’s Gospel and Acts: 

διϊσχυρίζεσϑαι, διοδεύειν. ἑνεδρεύειν, 
ἐπιδεῖν, ἐντόνως, κατακλείειν, κατακο- 


384 THE DIFFERENCES IN ARRANGEMENT 


Such appears to be, in rude outline, the general tenor of 
the Synoptic Evangelists; and though it be 
impossible to discuss within our present lim- 
its their more minute divergences in order 
and narration, yet it will be sufficiently clear that they 
subserve to special uses, that they imply and explain fun- 
damental differences of scope, and unfold the Christian 
faith as it falls within each separate range. The events 
recorded by the synoptists are not generally distinct, but 
they are variously regarded, that we may be led to recog- 
nize the manifold instructiveness and application of every 
word and work of Christ. It may, indeed, be difficult to 
trace the progress of the subject, as it is taken up in each 
successive part of the histories; yet from time to time the 
same familiar notes recur, and we feel sure that a deeper 
knowledge and a finer discernment would lead us to recog- 
nize their influence, even in those passages which are most 
complicated and obscure. We have followed no arbitrary 
arrangement in classifying the miracles or discourses of 
our Lord, and yet in the mere simplicity of the Gospels we 
have traced the great signs of a new and noble sequence, 


General Sum- 


mary. 


too uniform and pregnant to 


unpretending and obscure to be the work of design. 


λουϑεῖν, κλάσις (ἄρτου), μεγαλεῖα, 
ὀχλεῖσϑαι, προβίλλειν, προσδοκία, 
συμπληροῦν, συνεῖναι, τραυματίζειν 
(τραῦμα, Gosp. once) (all once in Gosp., 
once in Acts); διϊστάναι, ἐπιβιβάζειν, 
ϑάμβος (twice in Gosp., once in Acts); 
ἐπιχειρεῖν, ἴασις, [συναϑροίζειν] (Gosp. 
once, Acts twice); διαπορεῖν, ἐπιφω- 
νεῖν, εὐλαβής, καϑίεναι, συναρπάζειν 
(Gosp. once, Acts three times); ἢ ἑξῆς, 
καδϑεξῆς (twice; three times); καϑότι 
(twice; four times); ddvvaoSat (three 
times; once); ὁμιλεῖν (twice; twice); 
συγκαλεῖσϑαι, Midd. (three times; 
twice) ; συμβάλλειν (twice; four times). 

(Ὁ) Found only in Gospel: πτοεῖς- 
σῶϑαι, συκοφαντεῖν, ὑποχωρεῖν, χρεο- 
φειλέτης (each twice); συνιέναι, σὺυν- 


be attributable to chance, too 
And 


τυχεῖν, τελεσφορεῖν, φιλονεικία, etc. 
(each once). 

(c) Occurring more often in Gosp. 
and Acts than in the other books of 
the New Testament: ἅπας, ἀτενίζειν, 
ἐξαίφνης, καλούμενος, ὀνόματι, κατελ- 
Jey, παραχρῆμα. 

(12) καὶ ἐγένετο (ἐγέν. δέ) ἐν τῷ... 
In Gosp. twenty-two times, in Acts 
twice (Mark iv. 4). Compare ἐγένετο 
ὥς ον 

(18) ἦν, ete., with partic. In Gosp. 
forty-seven times, in Acts thirty-seven 
(Matt. ten; Mark twenty-seven; John 
eighteen), 

In the numbers given some differences 
may arise from yarious readings, but 
they are, I believe, generally correct. 


OF THE SYNOPTIC EVANGELISTS. 385 


surely the conviction of this truth, more than any other, 
—incommunicable it may be, and ill-defined by language, 
—must fill us with the devoutest reverence for the Gospel 
histories, a reverence which is no vain “ Bibliolatry,” but 
a feeling which springs from the satisfaction of our inmost 
wants, and furnishes the fullest materials for patient study. 
For such ascheme of the holy Gospels is at once most wor- 
thy of their divine origin, and most consistent with their 
outward form ; it realizes the individuality of their author- 
ship, and explains the facts of their perversions; it satis- 
fies, in its manifoldness, every requirement of the past and 
future relations of Christian truth; it falls in with early 
tradition, and opens to us a new view of the providential 
government of the Church; and, finally, it sets before us, 
in the clearest light, the combination of the human and 
divine, which lies at the basis of all revelation. The surest 
answer to all doubts, the readiest help in all difficulties, 
the truest consolation in all divisions, must spring from a 
real sense of the union of God and man in religion and in 
Scripture, which is the perfect record of the historical 
fulfilment of the union; and, if we read the words of inspi- 
ration humbly and sincerely, we have a promise which 
cannot fail. 


1 Orig. Selecta in Num. xi. 25: ἕν γὰρ ἐν Χριστῷ τὸ πνεῦμα, καὶ μία διὰ 
πάντων ἡ ἐνέργεια. 


99 


CHA Phas yeaa 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 


/ -“ .- e 

Πεπαιδευμένου ἐστὶ ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον τἀκριβὲς ἐπιζητεῖν Kad ἕκαστον γένος, ἐφ᾽ 
« “ / 
ὕσον ἣ τοῦ πράγματος φύσις ἐπιδέχεται. --- ARISTOTELES. 


Ir we have in any measure succeeded in establishing the 
idea of a distinct spiritual purpose and order 
ΛΠ ἢ τὸ writings of the several Evangelists, if 
rely meonsidera- we have shown that they rest upon the foun- 
dations of the past and meet the wants of 
the future, the remainder of our task will be easy. We 
shall feel the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout the 
whole narratives, and seek neither to limit His influence 
nor to define His operation. We shall recognize the diver- 
gences of the sacred writers, but still strive to discover the 
law of their course and the point of their reunion. We 
shall bear in mind how much is clear and evident in the 
written Word, while we ponder over dark and disputed 
sentences. We shall admit the obscurities which critics 
have detected in our Gospels, and endeavor to explain their 
origin, while we remember that, like the spots upon the 
surface of the sun, they neither mar the symmetry nor 
impair the glory of the great Source of our life and light 
which is imaged in them. ; 
ἈΚ See It would be a profitless task to discuss at 
for meeting orjec- length the objections which have been urged 
sar against distinct passages of the Gospels, for 
it is always the penalty of controversy that the wholé is 


9 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 38T 


neglected for details; but it may be not without use to 
indicate some general grounds for receiving with patience 
accounts which we cannot entirely reconcile. Such gen- 
eral considerations may lead us to wait for fuller knowl- 
edge, not with doubt and misgiving, but with a sure 
confidence in God’s eternal truth. 

We have already noticed the error of those who contem- 
plate the life of Christ, as recorded by the 
Evangelists, only outwardly, without regard- 3) Δ rn 
ing its spiritual significance. Hence it has ¢ienauearie 
followed, that details, historically trivial, have 
been deemed unfit subjects for the exercise of inspiration ; 
and it has been argued, from the omission of a wide cycle 
of facts by the Evangelists, that their narratives are vague 
and incomplete. The first step to a right understanding 
of the Gospels must be the abandonment of this point of 
sight; we must regard them as designed to set forth the 
progress of a divine work embodied in the life of the Son 
of Man; we must compare them with the inward experi- 
ence of Christians, and not with the annals of biographers ; 
we must read them to learn the details of our redemption, 
and not to add some new facts to the chronicles of the 
world. Before we pronounce any clause or word in the 
Bible insignificant or needless, let us be assured that it con- 
tains no “mystery,”! that it teaches the humble student no 
new lesson in the knowledge of the world, or of man, or 
of God. 

A second source of objections to the Gospels follows 
from the general disregard of their spiritual . Ος απο. 
character. No attempt is made to realize  sard of teir ais- 

Soy ΣῈ: εὶς " tinct purposes. 
their individual purposes, as representing nat- 
ural and fundamental differences in the conception of the 


1 Orig. Philoc.c. i. Πρέπει τὰ ἅγια τῶν ἀπὸ πληρώματος." Καὶ οὐδέν 
γράμματα πιστεύειν μηδεμίαν κεραίαν ἐστιν ἐν προφητείᾳ, ἢ νόμῳ, ἢ εὐαγ- 
ἔχειν κενὴν σοφίας Θεοῦ... ἐκ γὰρ γελίῳ, ἢ ἀποστόλῳ ὃ οὔκ ἐστιν amd 
τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ λαβόντες of πληρώματος. 
προφῆται λέγουσι. “διὸ πάντα πνεῖ 


388 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 


Life of Christ. If their individuality is asserted, it is as 
the partial result of design, and not as the spontaneous 
expression of a finite mind filled with the truth. To bor- 
row an illustration from classical literature, the “ Memoirs” 
of the Apostles are treated historically by a method which 
no critic would apply to the “Memoirs” of Xenophon. 
The scholar admits the truthfulness of the different pic- 
tures of Socrates which were drawn by the philosopher, 
the moralist, and the man of the world, and combines 
them into one figure instinet with a noble life, half hidden 
and half revealed, as men viewed it from different points; 
but he seems often to forget his art when he studies the 
records of the Saviour’s work. Henee it is that superficial 
differences are detached from the context which explains 
them. It is urged as an objection that parallel narratives 
are not identical. Variety of details is taken for discrep- 
ancy. The evidence may be wanting which might har- 
monize narratives apparently discordant; but experience 
shows that it is as rash to deny the probability of recon- 
ciliation as it is to fix the exact method by which it may 
be made out. If, as a general rule, we can follow the law 
which regulates the characteristic peculiarities of each 
Evangelist, and see in what way they answer to different 
aspects of one truth, and combine as complementary ele- 
ments in the full representation of it,’ we may be well 
contented to acquiesce in the existence of some difficulties 
which at present admit of no exact solution, though they 
may be a necessary consequence of that independence of 
the Gospels which, in other cases, is the source of their 
united power.’ 


1 Orig. In Joann. Tom. x. 18. Ἐπίσ- Origen’s principle is not shaken in any 
tnoov δὲ ἐπιμελῶς, εἰ δυνατὸν ὡς τάς degree by his own failure in applying 
γε evadAayas τῶν γεγραμμένων καὶ it. 
τὰς διαφωνίας διαλύεσϑαι παρὰ τὸν 2 Cf. Matt. viii. 5—10; Luke vii. 
τῆς ἀναγωγῆς τρόπον, ἑκάστου τῶν 1—10. 

Εὐαγγελιστῶν διαγράφοντος διαφόρους Matt. xxvii. 5; Acts 1. 18..ὄ See Gaus- 
τοῦ λόγου ἐνεργείας ἐν διαφόροις ἤϑδεσι sen, Theopneustia, p. 148 (1. Tr.), for a 
ψυχῶν οὐ τὰ αὑτὰ ἀλλά τινα Tapam® curious parallel. 

λήσια ἐπιτελούσας. The wisdom of John. xix. 17; Luke xxiii. 26. See 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 389 


The neglect of the spiritual object of the 
which they are deprived of their proper 
character, leads necessarily to the disregard 
of their secondary character, as true narra- 
tives of facts. Many recent critics have not 
only reduced our Gospels to the level of ordinary writings, 
but have then denied their special and independent author- 
ity. They commonly admit a fact on the testimony of 
Josephus, which they question if it rest on the statement 
of St. Matthew or St. Luke. They do not concede those 
privileges to the Evangelists which they yield to other his- 
torians in accordance with the received rules of evidence; 
and though it be said that the assumed inspiration of the 
Gospels removes them to a fresh position, it is clear that, 
in the interpretation of the outward text, they must be 
subject to the just arbitration of criticism ; for the body is 
obedient to the laws of matter, though informed by a liv- 
ing spirit. We claim for the Gospels the strictest inter- 
pretation of language. Let the test be applied universally, 
and the apologist will gain as much as the interpreter. 
As soon as we disbelieve in the force of words, similarity 
is confounded with sameness ;? differences are quoted as 
contradictions ;* the general is asserted to be inconsistent 


Gospels, by 


3. From a neg- 
lect of thew proper 
historical author- 
ity. 


p. 825, n. 6, and Orig. Comm. in Matt. 
Tom. xii. 544. 

1 Matt. xiv. 3. 

Matt. xxiii. 35. 

Matt. xxvii. 51 sqq.; 62—66; xxviii. 
11—15 (Strauss, iii. 4, § 183). 

Luke iii. 1 (Strauss, ii. 1, § 44). 


Matt. xiv. 15—21; xv. 32—88. 
xvi. 9, 10. 

Matt. xxvi. 6—13; Luke vii. 86—50. 

Luke ix. 1 sqq.; x. 1 sqq. 

John ii. 14—17; Matt. xxi. 12, 13. 

John iv. 46—54; Luke vii. 1—10. 


Cf. 


Luke xxiii. 45 (Strauss, iii. 4, § 133). 3 Matt. iii. 14; Johni. 81. Cf. p. 298, 
There is no mention of an Lclipse, but ἢ. 2. 
of Darkness (σκότος ἐγένετο. Matt. Matt. xx. 29—34; Mark x. 46—52; 
xxvii. 45; Mark xy. 33; Luke xxiii. Luke xviii. 85—43. Cf. Davidson’s 


44). The objection is as old as the time 
of Origen, who answers it rightly: 
Comm. Ser. in Matt. § 134. 
John i. 28; iii. 28; iv.5. Cf. xviii. 1. 
2 Matt. ix. 832—34; xii. 22—30. 


Hermeneutics, p. 558. ἢ 
Matt. xxvii. 54; Luke xxiii. 47. 
Matt. xxvii. 87; Mark xv. 26; Luke 

xxiii. 88; John xix. 19 ( The inscription 

on the Cross). Cf. p. 826, n. 4. 


33* 


900 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 


with the particular;! the connection of subject is taken for 
a connection of time.” 
It cannot be denied that the real origin of many, per- 
haps of most of the objections to the Gos- 
eee pels, lies deeper than textual criticism. The 
objections to the record rest on a fundamen- 
tal objection to the implied fact. An unexpressed denial 
of the possibility of miracles is the foundation of detailed 
assaults upon a miraculous narrative. Critical difficulties 
are too often, in the first instance, the excuse for a foregone 
conclusion, or at least fall in with a definite bias. A 
charge of prejudice is alleged against the defenders of the 
Gospels, and it lies more truly against those who attack 
them. The prevalence of a suspicion of all miraculous 
history, of a willingness to accept any explanation which 
may limit or modify its character, of a kind of satisfaction 
in believing that we may plausibly doubt some part of it 
and so question the whole, is far greater than we commonly 
admit even to ourselves. No one probably is free from the 
feeling ; and it is well to consider how much of each diffi- 
culty is due to the nature of the fact, and how much to 
the nature of the evidence by which it is attested; how 
far it is a fair result of the text itself; and how far a nat- 
ural consequence of the conception which the text contains. 
Christianity is essentially miraculous. This is a postulate 
of Biblical criticism; and it follows that miraculous cir- 
cumstances are exactly in the same position in the Gospel 
history as natural circumstances in common history. If 
the postulate be granted, the conclusion is inevitable; if 
it be denied, argument is impossible. No external evi- 
dence can produce faith. 


1 Matt. xi. 2 sqq.; John i. 34; iii. 27. John ν. 81; viii. 14. 

Matt. xi. 14; John i. 21. A suggestive instance occurs in Matt. 
Matt. xxi. 88; Acts iii. 17; xiii. 27. xx. 20; Mark x. 25, when we compare 
Matt. xxvi. 8; John xii. 4. Matt. xx. 22 with Mark x. 88 (οἴδατε). 


Matt. xxvi. 69—75; Mark xiv. 66--72; Matt. xiv. 18; Luke ix. 10. 
Luke xxii. 56—62; John xviii. 17, 18, 
25—27 (The denials of St. Peter). Cf. 2 Matt. xxi. 19, 20; Mark xi. 20. 
p- 301, n. Luke xxiy. 50; Acts i. 3. 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 391 


Apart from narratives which involve this antagonism of 
principle, it may be observed that even in 
those passages which present the greatest 
difficulties there are traces of unrecorded 
facts, which, if known fully, would probably explain the 
whole;! further knowledge tends to remove, instead of 
increasing, objections; and few objections are admitted to 
be of force by all adverse critics. The heritage of scepti- 
cism is rather the settled spirit of doubt than the accumu- 
lated store of arguments. Each antagonist of Christianity 
thinks that the battle fails where he is not himself engaged, 
Isolated and independent efforts are opposed to the gath- 
ered strength which ages of faith have transmitted to the 
Church. 

It is, perhaps, the more necessary to insist on these 
particulars, as much of the criticism at the 
present day seems to assume that there is 
some resting-place between the perfect truth- 
fulness of inspiration and the uncertainty of 
ordinary writing. A subjective standard is erected, which, 
if once admitted, will be used as much to measure the 
doctrines as the facts of Scripture; and, while many spec- 
ulators boldly avow this, others are contented to admit 
the premises from which the conclusion necessarily follows. 
But, within the Church, criticism is the interpreter and 
assessor, and not the sole and final judge. The same Spirit 
which gave the Revelation, for the establishment of the 
outward society, will unfold its meaning, but not supersede 
its use. The Spirit and the Word work together, and not 
apart. To claim a distinct personal enlightenment, inde- 
pendent of a written Word, is to violate the highest attri- 


The gravest 
objections are un- 
certain. 


Importance of 
feeling the literal 
truthfulness of 
Seripture: 


1 Luke ii. 2, αὕτη ἡ 
πρώτη ἐγένετο, kK. τ. A. The force 
of the objection lies in the neglect of 


Xtepéws* not ἐπὶ ᾿Αβιάϑαρ ἀρχιερέως 
(Luke iii.2. Cf, Herod. i. 15, 56, 65, 94). 
John xix. 14; Mark xv. 25. Cf. 


ἀπογραφὴ 


the word πρώτη, which seems to refer 
tosome other ‘‘ taxing,” with which we 
are unacquainted (1851). Cf. p. 318, n. 2. 

Mark ii. 26, ἐπὶ ᾿Αβιάϑαρ τοῦ ap- 


Townson, Dissert. viii. 1, ὁ 2. 

We see the importance of this minute 
criticism in Mark xi. 18, ἔχουσαν 
φύλλα. 


392 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 

bute of man — his social dependence. To convert the writ- 
ten Word into a rigid code of formal teaching, indepen- 
dent of the abiding presence of the Spirit who draws from 
it lessons for each age, is to destroy the idea of a Church 
—that “Communion of Saints” which realizes in life the 
historic verities of Christianity. Both feelings alike, though 
in different ways, spring out of that tendency of our age 
which would obliterate the name of government and the 
claims of national life. 

Still we must not seek, by an excess of zeal, to limit the 
narratives of Scripture to any mechanical 
arrangement; they are living oracles, whose 
vitality consists in their integrity. It is 
enough for us to refute the conclusions of our adversaries, 
without imitating their subtleties. The great marks of the 
divinity of the Gospels are written on every page and 
included in every word. Their perfect adaptation to our 
wants is proved by the witness of our own hearts, not 
because we can discover truth, but because, by God’s help, 
we can recognize it; and it is equally unwise 
and unchristian to mar our glorious heritage 
in the pursuit of a faithless knowledge, to impair its ful- 
ness, or abridge its scope, because our own reason, or that 
of others, is too proud to bow before the wondrous works 
and miracles consequent on the perfection 
and reality of a God manifest in the flesh. 
Surely here, if anywhere, it befits our weak- 
ness “to be thankful, and to wait.”! 

But, while either extreme of indifferentism 
and formal harmonization is alike hurtful, — 
for by the one we are apt to destroy our sense 
of moral beauty, and by the other our regard for moral 


even when we can- 
not prove it. 


Acts vii. 38. 


Hebr. xi. 1. 


1 Tim. tii. 16. 
(ΘΣ or ΟΣ). 


The relation of 
Faith to Reason 
tn Scripture, 


1Cf. Orig. Philoc. c. 1. ᾿Ασφαλὲς νοις αἰωνίοις σεσιγημένονυ, φανερωδέν- 


οὖν τὸ περιμένειν τὴν ἑρμηνείαν τοῦ 
σαφηνιστοῦ λόγου, καὶ τῆς ἐν μυστη- 
ρίῳ σοφίας ἀποκεκρυμμένης, ἣν οὐδεὶς 
τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἔγ- 
νωκε κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν μυστηρίον χρό- 


τος τοῖς ἀποστύλοις καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνοις 
παραπλησίοις διά τε γραφῶν προφητι- 
κῶν, καὶ τῆς γενομένης εἰς αὐτοὺς 
ἐπιφανείας τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν λόγου 
τοῦ ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν δεόν. 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 393 


truth, — we are not to decline, with some, the labors of a 
searching criticism, or, with others, the veneration of the 
humblest faith; for it is only by the combination of 
these that the deepest meaning of Holy Scripture is laid 
open. Reason and faith are not antagonistic principles, 
but another form of the great antithesis which lies at the 
basis of all our knowledge. By the one we discover the 
human form, and by the other the spiritual basis of 
revealed truth. Reason gives us the laws which limit our 
human conceptions, as made in time and space, and Faith 
gives us those absolute ideas of spiritual things which rea- 
son embodies. The one answers to the human, and the 
other to the divine, in our nature; and both alike are 
addressed by the Word of God, and consecrated to the 
Christian’s use. 

From this view of our constitution we may see that the 
very existence of difficulties in our Gospels ceo ae 
—which are the groundwork of our faith — — wefut Intelteetuy 
is a fresh incentive to vigorous and rational aa 
study. There is a noble remark of Origen,! which is true 
in a moral sense, and perhaps even literally, that “the 
Divine Word ordered some stumbling-blocks and stones 
of offence in the sacred records, that we might not be led 
away by the unalloyed attractiveness of the narration, and 
seek for nothing more divine.” We feel assured that the 
Scriptures contain infinite depths, from our sense of the 
general dealings of Providence and of the wants of the 
Church; and the subtlest criticism discovers enough to 
encourage us to dedicate every energy to the investigation 
of their mysteries. If there were no need for rigorous 
criticism, no reward for acute philology, no scope for phil- 
osophical inquiry, in the study of the Bible, —if the text 
were uniform, the diction simple, and the connection 


1 Philoc. i. 15, ὠκονόμησέ τινα oiovel ἵνα μὴ πάντη ὑπὸ τῆς λέξεως ἑλκόμε- 
σκάνδαλα καὶ προσκόμματα καὶ ἀδύ- νοι τὸ ἄγωγον ἄκρατον ἐχούσης... 
vata, διὰ μέσου ἐγκαταταχϑῆναι τῷ μηδὲν δειότερον μάϑωμεν. 
νόμῳ καὶ τῇ ἱστορίᾳ 6 τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγας" 


994 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 
obvious, — we might neglect the consecration of our entire 
faculties to divine ends;! while, as it is, we find in the 
human form, and the natural transmission of the sacred 
volume, the noblest field for our labors. If it be said that 
these subtleties are only for the scholar, the answer is 
obvious, that so are the objections to which they corre- 
spond. The Bible appeals to all as they are; no one occu- 
pies a position of superiority. The difficulties of Scripture 
are wseful intellectually.’ 

But, again, we must remember that all revelation is 
given to us as in a state of probation,’ and 
that not only in reference to a part of our 
nature, but to the whole. We are subjected to a mental 
as well as to moral trial, or, rather, morality is extended to 
reason as well as to life; and we might expect that Scrip- 
ture should furnish us with a proper training for both. 
“Believe, and then thou shalt find beneath 
the imaginary offence a full source of profit,” 
was a saying of Origen’s, never more truly applicable than 
in an age of unexampled restlessness. The outward 
moral temptation is now, perhaps, less formidable than 
heretofore, from the form of our civilization, while the in- 
ward struggle waxes fiercer and fiercer, as men seek not so 
much to live freely as to know fully, forgetting too often 
that love is the source of wisdom; for “the chasms (and 
discrepancies) in the divine history afford room for the 
exercise of faith —a faith whose root is to be found, not in 
science, not in demonstration, but in simple and self-sub- 
duing submission of our spirits.”* The difficulties of 
Scripture. are useful morally. 

Origen® will still furnish us with another remark: the 


2. Morally. 


Philoc. i. 23. 


1 Arist. Eth. N. vi. 12. 

2 Among the notes for Pascal’s great 
Apology is the following: ‘ Plusieurs 
Evangélistes pour la confirmation de 
la vérité. Leur dissemblance utile.” 
(Ed. Faugére, ii. p. 371). 

3 In addition to Dutler, we may 


refer to Pascal’s notes, Vol. ii. pp. 205, 
265. 

4 ((ΤὼΤ]Ὶ faut aimer les choses divines 
pour Jes connaitre.?? — Pascal. 

5 Neander, Life of Christ, Introd. 

6 De Princip. iv. p. 108 (i. § 7), ὥσπερ 
od χρεωκοπεῖται ἣ πρόνοια διὰ τὰ μὴ 


THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 395 


difficulties of the revelation in the Bible are strictly anal- 
ogous to those of the revelation in nature. 

“In both we sce aself-concealing, self-reveal- Nate” 
ing God, who makes Himself known only to 

those who earnestly seek Him; in both we find stimulants 
to faith, and occasions for unbelief.”! There are apparent 
anomalies in the phenomena of the material world, but 
their general uniformity teaches us that these are only dis- 
crepancies in appearance. There are difficulties in apply- 
ing the great doctrine of gravitation, — as in the case of 
the tides,— but we feel that they arise not from any want 
of universality in the law, but from our ignorance of the 
conditions of the problem. There are also difficulties in 
Scripture; and shall we not rest assured, from that Divine 
wisdom which we can discern, that they spring only from 
our ignorance of the circumstances on which the question 
turns? If the Gospels had presented no formal offences, 
how soon should we have heard objections drawn from the 
general course of God’s dealings! How readily should we 
have been reminded of the plausibility of human forgeries, 
and of the mystery of Divine Providence! It would have 
been even said,’ that the advance of Christianity — which 
must be folly to the Greek — was due to the 
beauty of its external form, and the perfec- 
tion of its superficial smoothness, and not to the power of 
its inner truth: whereas, at present, the discrepancies of 
Scripture lead us back to the Author of nature; and as 
we do not question His eternal Presence, though many 
details of His operation transcend our knowledge, so 
neither need we doubt the perfect inspiration 
of the Scriptures, though frequently we may 
be unable to recognize the treasure of God in the earthly 


1 Cor, i. 25. 


2 Cor. iv. 7. 


γινωσκόμενα παρὰ τοῖς γ᾽ ἅπαξ παρα- παρίστασϑαι τῇ κεκρυμμένῃ λαμπρό- 
δεξαμένοις αὐτὴν καλῶς, οὕτως οὐδὲ τητι τῶν δογμάτων ἐν εὐτελεῖ καὶ 
ἡ τῆς γραφῆς δειότης διατείνουσα εἰς εὐκαταφρονήτῳ λέξει ἀποκειμένῃ. 
πᾶσαν αὐτὴν, διὰ τὸ μὴ KaY ἑκάστην 1 Neander, J. ¢. 

λέξιν δύνασϑαι τὴν ἀσϑένειαν ἡμῶν 5 Origen, Philoc. τν. 


396 THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS. 


vessels which contain it. The difficulties of Scripture are 
useful as unfolding the true analogy of God’s works. 

But “not to rest in this school of nature,’ we must 
remember, in the midst of the doubts and perplexities 
which so easily beset us, that at present we 
know but in part the facts and the bearings 
of revelation. Dim views of a wider scope and a more 
perfect wisdom are ever opened before us. Faith looks 
forwards as well as inwards; and even now we sce enough 
whereon to rest securely the firm foundations of our hope, 
possessing our souls in peace, till that which is in part 
shall be done away,—till the glorious buildings of the 
New Jerusalem and its heavenly splendors shall be fully 
disclosed, whereof at present we can but discern, amid the 
mists of earth, wondrous pillars and buttresses, or through 
some dim window the distant rays of that 
glorious Sun—even the Lamb of God— 
which shall at one time illumine the Holy City. 


1 Cor. xiii, 9. 


Rev. xxi. B. 


TENHOHTQ HMIN KATA THN ΠΙΟΤΙΝ HMQN KAO HN KAI 
TIICTEYOMEN OTI TIACA TPA®H O€OIINEYCTOC OYCA KAI 
Q&EAIMOC ECTI, — ORIGENES. 


APPENDICES. 


4 Hutt 5 ms 
alors ats ἡ 


APPENDICES, 


ACE BONO xe A. 


ON THE QUOTATIONS IN THE GOSPELS. 


Οὐδέποτε οὕτως ἐλάλησεν ἄνϑρωπος. -- JOUN VII. 46. 


THE quotations made from the Old Testament by our Lord and His 
disciples, give us, perhaps, the truest and most decisive The τ ΠΣ 
view of the inspiration of the Bible; for no one, 1 sup- οὗ the Old Testa- 
pose, will refuse that authority to the Gospels and Epis- ranean ine 
tles which is assured to the Law and the Prophets. The 
Christian Councils must have had the same authority and guidance in 
deciding on the Canon of the new Scriptures as was enjoyed by the Jewish 
Church, nor can we believe that less grace was given to those who por- 
trayed the substance of the Gospel than to those who saw its shadow ; for 
the only alternative is to deny the need of an outward society and a divine 
Word for the fulfilment of the second dispensation. It will be seen from 
the following passages, taken from the books of Moses, the Psalms, and 
the Prophets, that a spiritual significance lies beneath the Bible as a whole; 
that its power and usefulness is not confined to striking predictions or defi- 
nite precepts, but spread over simple historic details, and involved in the 
records of individual life. We may conclude this, — 


J. From the mode in which our Lord appeals to Scripture as decisive : 


(a) In direct precepts: nathater graced 
Matt. iv. 4, 7,10; Cf. Luke iv. 4, 8,12 1. Bythe quotations 
(yéypamrat’ εἴρηται" Deut. vi. 13, 16; alter 
vill.3). Matt. rx. 18; xii. 7 (Hos. vi. 11). 
Matt. xv. 4 (ὁ Θεὸς εἶπεν) Mark vii. 10 (Mwiojs εἶπεν, Ex. 
xx. 12). Cf. Matt. xxii. 36, 38; Matt. xviii. 16. 
Cf. Deut. xix. 15, 
(0) In distinct prophecies : 
Matt. xi. 10 (οὗτός ἐστιν περὶ οὗ γέγραπται, Mal. iii. 1). 
Matt. xxiv. 15. Mark xiii. 14 (τὸ ῥηϑὲν ὑπὸ Δανιὴλ τοῦ 
mp. Dan. ix. 27; xii. 11). 
Matt. xxvi. 54 (πῶς οὖν πληρωϑῶσιν αἱ γραφαί, ὅτι οὕτω δεῖ 
γενέσϑαι; Cf. ν. 56). 
Luke vii. 97, Matt. xi. 10 (περὶ οὗ γέγραπται. Mal. iii. 5). 
Luke xxii. 37 (τὸ γεγραμμένον Se? τελεσϑῆναι ἐν ἐμοί" 
Isa. liii. 12). 


400 ON THE QUOTATIONS IN THE GOSPELS. 


And significant: 
(c) In its secondary application s 

Matt. x. 35 (Mic. vii. 6). Matt. xii. 5 (οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε' Num. 
XXVili, 9). 

Matt. xiii. 14, 15 (ἀναπληροῦται αὐτοῖς ἡ προφητεία" 
158. vi. 9, 11). 

Matt. xv. 8, 9 (προεφήτευσεν ‘Ho. Isa, xxix. 13). 

Matt. xxi. 13. Mark xi. 17. Luke xix, 46 (γέγραπται" 
Isa. lvi. 7). 

Matt. xxi. 16 (οὐδέποτε ἀνέγνωτε ; Ps. viii. 2). 

Matt. xxi. 42 (οὐδέποτε ἀνέγνωτε ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς); Mark 
xii. 10 (ἡ γραφὴ αὕτη) ; Luke xx. 17 (τὸ γεγραμμέ- 
νον τοῦτο" Ps, cxviii. 22, 23), 

Matt. xxvi. 31 (γέγραπται: Zech. xiii. 7). 

John vi. 45 (yeyp. ἐν τοῖς προφήταις Isa. liv. 13). 

John xiii. 18 (ἢ γραφή" Ps. xli. 9). 

John xv. 25 (ὁ λόγος 6 γεγραμμένος ἐν τῷ νόμῳ aitav’ Ps. 
ΧΧΧΥ, 19), 

(d) In its spiritual depth: 

Matt. xii. 40 (John ii. 1). Matt. xix. 4, 5 (οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε) ; 
Mark x. 6. Gen, i. 27; ii. 24. 

Matt. xxii. 32 (τὸ pnSty ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ); Mark xii. 26 
(ov ἀνέγνωτε ws εἶπεν ὁ Oeds); Luke xx. 37 (Mwi- 
ons ἐμήνυσεν: Ex, iii. 6, 16). 

Matt. xxii. 43, 44 (Δαυεὶδ ἐν πνεύματι); Mark xii. 36 
(A. ἐν my. ἁγίῳ); Luke xx. 41 (AavelS λέγει: Ps. 
ex); 4 

Matt. xxvii. 46; Mark xv. 34. Cf. Ps. xxii, 2. 

Mark ix. 49.) 

John x. 84 (yeyp. ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ὑμῶν: Ps. 1xxxii. 6).? 


From these passages it will be seen that we must either accept the doc- 
trine of a plenary inspiration, as we have already explained the phrase, or 
deny the veracity of the Evangelists. If our Lerd’s words are accurately 
recorded, or even if their general tenor is expressed in one of the Gospels, 
τι Bibi? is indeed the “ Word of God,” in the fullest spiritual sense ; for 
no scheme of accommodation can be accepted where it tends to lead men 
astray as (to the sources of divine help. 

II. The doctrine which we have seen to be implied in the language of 

FE nena LOBE Lord is yet more fully unfolded by the Apostles and 
tions of the Bwan- Evangelists. It will be enough for our present purpose 
gelists. to give a general table of the citations in the Gospels : 


1 Cf. Olshausen, Momm. S. 555 ff. (Origen, Philoc. 1. § 10); xvi. 29, 81; 
2Cf Matt, xxvii 46; Luke xi. 62 John v. 39, 46; vii. 88. 


ON THE QUOTATIONS IN THE GOSPELS. 401 


(a) Distinct prophecies : 
Matt. ii. 6 (γέγραπται Mic. ν. 2). 
Matt. iv. 15, 16 (ἵνα πληρωϑῇ τὸ pndev διὰ τοῦ mp. Isa. 
1. la 2). 
Matt. xii. 17-21 (ὅπως πληρωδϑῇ τὸ ῥηϑέν" Isa. vi. 1-4). 
Matt. xxi. 5 (ἵνα πληρωδϑῇ τὸ ῥηϑέν" Zech. ix. 9); John xii. 
15 (καϑώς ἐστιν γεγραμμένον). 


(0) Typical acts and words fulfilled in the Gospel history: 


Matt. i. 22 (ὅλον γέγονεν ἵνα πληρωδῇ τὸ ῥηδὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ 
Κυρίου διὰ τοῦ mp. Isa. vii. 14). 

Matt. ii. 15 (va πληρωδῇ τὸ pnsev ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου διὰ τοῦ 
mp. Hos, xi. 1). 

Matt. ii. 18 (τότε ἐπληρώϑη τὸ ῥ. διὰ τοῦ mp. Jer. XxXXi. 
15). 

Matt. ii. 23 (ὅπως tAnpwd7 τὸ ῥ. διὰ τῶν προφητῶν). 

[Matt. iii. 3. Marki. 8. Luke iii. 4. John i. 23.] 

Matt. viii. 17 (ὅπως πληρωϑῆ. Isa. lili. 4). 

Matt. xiii, 35 (ὅπως πλ. τὸ ῥηδὲν διὰ τοῦ Tp. Ps. Ixxviii. 2). 

Matt. xxvii. 9, 10 (τότε ἐπληρώδη τὸ ῥ. [Zech.] xi. 12, 13). 

John ii. 17 (yeyp. ἐστίν" Ps. Ixix. 9). 

John xii. 38-41 (od ἠδύναντο πιστεύειν ὅτι εἶπεν ‘Ho... 
ἵνα πληρωδῇ ὁ λόγος ‘Ho...1ad7a εἶπεν ‘Ho. ὅτε εἶδεν Thy 
δόξαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐλάλησε περὶ αὐτοῦ" Isa. lili. 1; vi. 
9, 10). 

John xix. 24 (ἵνα 4 γραφὴ πλερωϑῇ ἡ λεγ. Ps. xxii. 18. 
Cf. Matt. xxvii. 35). 

John xix. 36 (ἵνα ἡ yp. mA. Ex. xxii. 46; γραφὴ λέγει" 
Zech. xii. 10). 


It may be worth while to enumerate some general conclusions to which 
this enumeration leads : 

1. There appears to be a distinct meaning in the dif- 
ferent modes of quotation. Surenhusius' has made a 
valuable collection of the formulz in use among the Rabbins, which may 
be compared with the Greek phrases; but the discussion of this question 
would necessarily lead us beyond the Gospels. 

2. The usage of the Evangelists shows that they did not introduce the 
quotations into the speeches of Jesus. For while St. Mark and St. Luke 
do not quote the prophets in their own narratives, they agree exactly with 
St. Matthew in their records of our Lord’s teaching. 

' 3. The authority of Christ himself and of his Apostles encourages us 
to search for a deep and spiritual meaning under the ordinary words of 
Scripture, which, however, cannot be gained by any arbitrary allegorizing, 
but only by following out patiently the course of God’s dealings with 


Deductions from 
the <lpostolic usage. 


1 In his Βίβλος καταλλαγῆς. Cf. supr. p. 53, n. 


34* 


402 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


man.! There are traces even in the Old Testament of the recognition of 
this fulness of the written Word.2 Such a belief lies at the basis of the 
arguments of St. Paul? and of the Epistle to the Hebrews ;* and we shall 
find that it was ratified for at least three centuries by the common consent 
of the Church. 


AD PEN ΧΟ 6: 
ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


7 Τιμόϑεε, Thy παραϑήκην φύλαξον, ἐκτρεπόμενος τὰς βεβήλους κενοφω- 
νίας, καὶ ἀντιϑέσεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως" ἥν τινες ἐπαγγελλόμενοι, περὶ 
τὴν πίστιν ἠστόχησαν. ---- 1 TIM. VI. 20. 


In the present Appendix I shall endeavor to collect, as far as possible, 
all the chief opinions of the Fathers of the first three centuries on the 
nature of Inspiration. We may be inclined to judge some of ¢eir state- 
ments fanciful or unsound, but still it cannot be a profitless task to learn 
what they thought of our Bible, who found in its teaching a support in 
martyrdom; it cannot be unworthy of the most advanced Christian to 
treasure up the sayings of those who lived while an apostolic tradition 
still lingered among the disciples of St. John, St. Peter, and St. Mark. 

In the course of our inquiry we shall meet with men who regarded our 
religion from the most opposite points of view. We shall hear the testi- 
monies of the converted Jew, the awakened heathen, and the hereditary 
Christian — of those who found in the faith of Christ the fulfilment of 
ancient promises or early hopes, and of others who were driven to embrace 
it by the pressure of their own wants, after they had gone through the 
circle of philosophy. Yet more, we shall be obliged to recognize the 
various influences of Eastern and Western life. Palestine and Assyria, 
Antioch and Alexandria, — the seats of divergent systems of criticism and 
theology, — contributed to fill the ranks of Christian writers, and furnished 
words to express their new ideas. The voice of Christianity comes to us 
from Athens and Carthage, from Rome and Lyons. All these points 


1 Those who wish to pursue this ques- 
tion further in relation to modern 
opinions, will do well to study Olshau- 
sen’s beautiful tract, Hin Wort aber 
tiefern Schriftsinn. 

2 Olshausen, § 7; the passages in the 
Apocrypha are given in § 8. 

8 Cf. 1 Cor, x. 1-12, 18; 2 Cor. iii. 7, 
8 (Cf. Orig. in Joan. Tom, XxXxIt. § 17); 


Gal. iv. 21-81; Eph. v. 29-32 (Gen. ii. 
24); Col. ii. 17. 

4 The whole argument of the Epistle 
depends on the reality of the spiritual 
meaning of the Old Testament. Cf. 
Heb. iv. 5,7; v. 5-12; vii.-x.; xii. 1. 

In the Apocalypse also we find the 
same deep symbolism. Cf. xxi. 10- 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 403 


must be carefully remembered if we wish to form an adequate idea of the 
real purport and true unity of the teaching of the Church. For in pro- 
portion as their differences of country, education, and temperament are 
greater, so much the more striking is the essential agreement of the early 
Fathers in points of faith and feeling ; and if we can trace, under various 
forms, one great idea of inspiration in the scattered societies of ancient 
Christendom — if we can find it incorporated into distinct systems and 
acknowledged by the most incongruous minds —if the universal consent 
of antiquity lead us to Scripture for the groundwork of our creed — we 
shall surely acknowledge that tradition has done for us a noble and neces- 
sary work, by maintaining an inspired Bible, a definite canon, and a 
general method of interpretation. 

For the sake of simplicity it will be best to follow the common arrange- 
ment of Church histories, and examine in succession the subapostolic 
Fathers (ὃ 1); the Apologists (ὁ 2) ; the Fathers of Asia Minor (§3); North 
Africa (ἢ 4); Rome (ἢ 5); Alexandria (§6); and the Clementines (§ 7). 


SECT. I.— THE SUBAPOSTOLIC FATHERS. 


Οὔτε γὰρ ἐγὼ οὔτε ἄλλος ὅμοιος ἐμοὶ δύναται κατακολουϑῆσαι τῇ σοφίᾳ 
τοῦ μακαρίου καὶ ἐνδόξου Παύλου. -- PoLYCARP. 


1. From the nature of the subapostolic writings all allusions to Inspi- 
ration are incidental. The first literature of a Church is 
rather practical than doctrinal, and we must endeavor to 
discover the teaching which it involves, rather than merely that which it 
expresses. Thus Barnabas uses such phrases as the 
following, when quoting Scripture: “The Lord saith 
in the prophet” (Ps. xvii. 45); “The Spirit of the Lord prophesieth” 
(Ps. xxxiii. 13). Again, he tells us that “the prophets gs. 
received their gift from Christ and spake of Him,” and § 10. 
that “Moses spake in the Spirit”? Consistently with pee εις 
this view, he asserts the presence of a spiritual meaning in the Law and 
History of the Jews,! and discovers types of the Cross in the ancient 
Scriptures (Exod. xvii. 18, sqq.; Isai. Ixv. 2; Num. aie 
xxi. 9). The number of those circumcised by Abra- 89... 
ham (318, in Greek τιή) represents, he says, at once the 
name of Jesus (IH) and the figure of the Cross (T). Than this there is 
no truer (γνησιώτερος) word. But such knowledge was 
hidden in old time: ‘we have gained the right sense of 
the commandments, and speak as the Lord wished.” 
We are, as it were,a new creation. The first tables of the Covenant 


1. BARNABAS. 


Ep. § 9. 


§ 10. 
6. 


1 Rosenmiiller (JZist. Interpr. τ. 65 tween the interpretations of Barnabas 
566.) has drawn a striking parallel be- and Philo. 


404 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


which Moses brake because of the unworthiness of the people have been 
given to us by the Lord. ‘In us God truly dwells, that 
is, the Word of His faith (6 λόγος αὐτοῦ τῆς πίστεως), 
the calling of His promise, the wisdom of His ordinances, the command- 
ments of His teaching, Himself prophesying in us, Himself dwelling in us; 
by opening for us who were enslaved by death the doors of the temple, — 
even our mouth, —and by giving us repentance, He brought us into the 
incorruptible temple [7. 6., made us true temples of God]. He, then, that 
longeth to be saved, looketh not to man, but to Him 
that dwelleth in him and speaketh in him. . . . And 
one rule of those who walk on ‘the way of light’ is: 
‘Thou shalt guard what thou hast received, neither adding nor taking 
away from it.” 

2. Clement of Rome quotes many passages from Scripture with the 
words: “for the Scripture saith;” “by the testimony 
of Scripture;” “the Holy Spirit saith.’ He exhorts 


§ 16. 


819. Cf. Rev. 
xx. 18, 19. 


2 CLEMENS Rom. 
Ep. i. 23, 54. 


i. 13,16. his readers to “look carefully (éy[xvmrete]eis) into the 
nae a Scriptures, which are the true [utterances] of the Holy 
i. 45. Spirit.’ Again, he says: ‘ Ye know, beloved, ye know 
i. 53. 


well the sacred Scriptures, and have looked carefully into 
the oracles (τὰ λόγια) of [God] ;” and * the spirit of low- 
liness and awe (τὸ ὑποδεὲς) through obedience, not only improveth us, but 
also improved the generations before us, even those (unless we probably 
read καταδεξομένους with Davis) who received His oracles in fear and 
truth.” In another place he speaks of “the ministers of 
the grace of God [the prophets of the Old Testament], 
who by the Holy Ghost spake of repentance.” But the greatest effusion of 
the Spirit was reserved for the Christian Church, when our Lord sent forth 
his Apostles, even as He was sent by the Father, to preach the kingdom 
of God “with the full assurance and measure of the 
Holy Spirit (μετὰ πληροφορίας πνεύματος ἁγίου), when 
they had received the promises, and been fully convinced (πληροφο- 
pnvevres) by the Resurrection, and confirmed in the word of God” 
(πιστωϑέντες ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ); of whose number 
“the blessed Paul, at the beginning of the Gospel, in very 
truth wrote by inspiration” (πνευματικῶς, divinitus inspiratus. Vet. Int.) 
to the Corinthians. 

Again, the epistle of Clement abounds in Old Testament illustrations. 
He traces in the men of old time the results of envy, and 


f.¢.3. 


i. 42. 


i. 47. 


i. 4,917. . : : sis 
the blessings of faith, obedience, and humility. He 
Ber recognizes, moreover, the lasting import of the recorded 


history, and the significance of the most minute details. 
The scarlet thread which Rahab hung out of the window was “to show 
that a redemption (λύτρωσις) should be made by the blood of the Lord 


1 Compare the remarkable passage, Ephes. ii. 12. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 405 


for all who believe and hope upon God.” The use as well as the lan- 
guage of Clement prove in what account he held “ the 
Word of God.” 

3. The short and affecting epistle of Polycarp contains little which 
illustrates our subject, though he tells us, with touching 
humility, that ‘neither he nor any like him is able to 
attain perfectly (κατακολουϑῆσαι) to the wisdom of the 
blessed and glorious Paul” (contrast 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16), and seems for 
once to burn with the zeal of his master when he declares that * he is the 
first-born of Satan whoever perverts the oracles of the 
Lord to suit his own passions, and says that there is 
neither resurrection nor judgment.’ The last quotation is valuable, for, 
when compared with the passages of Clement cited before, it proves that 
the same term (τὰ λόγια) was used in quoting the old and new Scriptures. 
Again, Polycarp writes “that he trusts his hearers are well versed in the 


13, 


3. POLYCARP. 


2 


ς. ὁ. 


Cis 


sacred writings (in sacris litteris),” alleging at the same 


time Psalm iv. 4; Ephes. iv. 26. 


Indeed, the words and 


6. 12. 


spirit of the New Testament seem to be inwrought into his mind; for 
though he only once mentions the name of the sacred 


writer whom he quotes, there appear to be in his short 


ce. 11( Paul). 


epistle more than twenty distinct references to the Apostolic books.' 
4. The transition from Polycarp to Ignatius is very striking, whichever 


recension of the Ignatian letters we may be inclined to 
We read in one passage that the writer “ trusts 
to attain to that lot to which he has been mercifully 


adopt.” 


4, IGNATIUS. 
Ep. ad 
Philad. 5. 


called, having fled to the Gospel? as to the fiesh of Jesus, and to the 
Apostles as to the Presbytery of the Church ;” and “ yet 


more,” he adds, “let us love the prophets, because they 
were the heralds of the Gospel (κατηγγελκέναι eis...) . 


1 Feyardentius, in his notes on Ire- 
nus (111. 3, p. 118, App. Ed. Benedic.), 
quotes some questionable fragments 
from a MS. Catena on the Gospels, pur- 
porting to be the versions of some 
chapters of the Responsions of Poly- 
carp, Bishop of Smyrna, made by Vic- 
tor of Capua (c. 480). Their character 
will be seen from the following quo- 
tations: Matt. xix.5, ‘ Deus vero qui 
per inspirationem divinam in corde 
Adam ista verba formavit ipse Pater a 
Domino recte locutus fuisse refertur; 
nam et Adam hance prophetiam protulit, 
et Pater qui eum inspiravit recte dicitur 
protulisse.” ‘“ Rationabiliter Evan- 
geliste principiis diversis utuntur 


ad Magn. 8. 


εν and by belief 


quamvis una eademque Evangelizandi 
eorum probatur ratio; . cure 
fuit eo uti procemio quod unusquisque 
judicabat auditoribus expetere.” Surely 
this is not the language of the apostolic 
age. 

2 There are, apparently, only half as 
many references to Scripture in the 
shorter recensions of the Epistles as in 
the remains of Polycarp, though in 
bulk the former are, perhaps, ten times 
as great as the latter. 

3 In opposition to Hefele and Nie- 
meyer, I can only understand these 
words of written histories and epistles 
according to the context and the gener- 
al usage of the words. Cf. Ussher, 1. c. 


406 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


in it were saved ;” “for the divinest (ϑειότατοι) Prophets lived according 
to Jesus Christ..... being inspired (ἐμπνεόμενοι) by 
ad. Prlad.® ‘His grace; .... “He was the subject of their preach- 
Cf. ad Smyrn.7. 1S grace ; J Ρ 
ing, and the Gospel is the perfection of immortality 
(ἀπάρτισμα a&pSapcias).” Ἷ 
In one place Ignatius seems to claim for himself a direct communication 
from heaven: “I call you to witness that I knew this 
not from man (σαρκὸς avSpwrivns), but the Spirit pro- 
claimed, saying, Do nothing without your bishop; keep your flesh as a 
ty temple of God;....be ye imitators of Jesus even as 
(So. Syr.) He was of His Father;” yet again he disclaims the per- 
ee A sonal possession of this higher knowledge, which was 
reserved for the time “when he received the pure light” 
by death, and so became ‘(a man of God.” ‘Ido not give you injunc- 
tions (διατάσσομαι),᾽ he says, “as Peter and Paul: they 
were Apostles, I a condemned man.”. .. . The Christian 
“who possesses the Word of Jesus is truly able to hear even His silence, 
that he may be perfect; that in what he speaks he may 
act, and in what he is silent his character may be known; ” 
“the bishops” “too are in the mind (ἐν τῇ γνώμῃ εἰσιν) of Jesus, as 
Jesus is the mind of His Father.” } 
5. Papias, who was a contemporary of Polycarp, is the first writer who 
distinctly recognizes the synoptic Gospels. In illustra- 


ad Philad, 7. 


ad Eph. 15. 


ad Eph. 3. 


5. PAPIAS. 
Euseb. H. E. tion of them, as it appears, he composed “‘ An exposition 
ti. 39. of the Oracles of the Lord” (Λογίων Κυριακῶν ἐξήγησις), 


including in his book traditions still current, which might seem to throw 
light upon the apostolic narrative. Like Clement and 
the Alexandrine school, he is said to have given a spirit- 
ual interpretation to the history of the Creation (es 
Χριστὸν καὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν πᾶσαν τὴν ἑξαήμερον vohoas) ; 
and he is quoted by Andreas as ἃ witness to the authority of the Apoc- 
alypse. 

6, The Shepherd of Hermas evinces by its form and reception? the 
belief of the primitive age in the nature and possibility 
of Inspiration. We have not to discuss here the apos- 
tolic claims of the book, but its existence is a distinct proof of the early 
recognition of a prophetic power somewhere existent in the Church. 
What was the character of this influence we may learn from the com- 
mencement of one of the visions ; “And again the Spirit 
carried me away to the same place, ... and when I had 
risen from prayer, I saw a Matron walking and reading a book, and she 


Sr. ix. (Routh). 


Prol. in Apoc. 


6. ERMAS. 


Vis. ii. 1. 


1In one passage Ignatius seems to the Syriac yersion, at least in a perfect 
express a scnse of the deeper meaning form. 
of Scripture: ad Ephes. xx. (in Syr.). 2 It is quoted with marked respect by 
It will be seen that, with one exception, Irenzus, Clement of Alexandria, and 
the passages quoted are not found in Origen. Cf. Euseb. H. Z. v.7; m1. 25. 


ON TIE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 407 


said to me: ‘Can you report this to the elect of God?’ I said to her: 
‘Lady, I cannot retain so great things in my memory; but give me the 
book, and I will write them down.’ —‘ Take it,’ she said, ‘and restore 
it to me.’ Now, when I had taken the book, I retired and wrote down 
everything letter by letter, for I did not discover .the [divisions of the] 
syllables (non enim inveniebam syllabas ; cf. Clem. Alex. 
Str. v1. § 181). The Lady, he afterwards tells us, is 
the Church of God, and the revelation is to be sent to foreign cities, and 
delivered to the widows and orphans of the Church.! 

7. One more passage I will add, from an uncertain but very early 
writer,? who, addressing an inquiring heathen, describes 


Vis. ii. 4. 


7. Ep. ad 
the blessings of believers, among whom ‘the fearful DIOGNETUM. 
811. 


strains of the Law are repeated, the grace of the Proph- 
ets recognized, the faith of the Gospels established, the tradition of the 
Apostles kept, and the grace of the Church triumphant (σκιρτᾷ). And 
if thou grievest not this grace thou shalt know what the Word speaks to 
men, by whom He pleases, when He will” (ἃ Λόγος ὁμιλεῖ, δ ὧν βούλεται, 
ὅτε ϑέλει). In this noble sentence we see the first intimation of the co- 
ordinate authorities of the Bible and the Church, of a written record and 
a living voice; and it may well serve as a summary of the principles 
which we have traced in the earliest Fathers of the Christian faith. 


SECT. IIl.— THE APOLOGISTS. 


οὔπω μέχρις αἵματος ἀντικατέστητε. --- HER. xi. 4. 


1. The writings of the earliest Apologists, Quadratus and Aristides, 
have perished ; but Eusebius has preserved a tradition 
that the former, like the daughters of Philip (Acts xxi. 
9), was distinguished for his prophetic power — another 
intimation of the belief of the early Church in the real 
existence of a gift of Inspiration. Thus it is that the 
works of Justin, who, as we are told, still retained the mantle of the 
philosopher after he had adopted the doctrines of the Gospel, first pre- 
sent to us Christianity in relation with the ancient faith ; and by their 
whole form and language they clearly show the necessary change which 


1. The early Apol- 
ogists. 

A E. tii. 36; v. 
17 (on the authority 
of Miltiades). 


1 The whole section is very interest- 
ing. Origen (Philoc. 1. 11) gives a sin- 
gular allegorical interpretation of the 
two copies which Hermas is ordered 
tomake. He represents Grapte as the 
letter, for she teaches widows and or- 
phans—those who are not yet united 
with the Spouse of the Church, though 
divorced from their old conncction, 


nor yet adopted children of the Father; 
while Clement typifies the spirit, ex- 
tending its influence far and wide with- 
out corporeal restraints. 

2 Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 95 ff. 
I do not remember to have read any- 
where more eloquent outbursts of 
Christian feeling than are found in 
several chapters; 6. g., ch. v. 


408 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. e 
had taken place since the time of the Apostles in the hearers and teachers 
of the new religion.! 

2. The Scriptural quotations introduced by Justin into all his works 


j rous hi de of citation is singularl 
δ. Justin Man. 2%@ numerous, and his mode of cit g y 


ry. expressive. He tells us of the “history which Moses 
The Law. wrote by Divine Inspiration (ἐκ ϑείας ἐπιπνοίας)," while 
Ceege: “the Holy Spirit of prophecy taught through him.” 
Apol. i. 44. ‘ Cie yi 
The Psalms. Again, he quotes the language of David, ‘who spake 
Apol. i. 40. thus (Ps. xix. 2-5) through the spirit of prophecy ;” 
Apol. i. 35. 


and of Isaiah, who was moved (ϑεοφορεῖσϑαι) by the 
same Spirit (Isa. Ixv. 2; lviii. 2). 

Yet more, he tells us that ““as Abraham believed on the voice of God, 
and it was reckoned to him for righteousness, so do the 
Christians too believe on the voice of God, which has 
been addressed again to them by the Apostles of Christ, 
and proclaimed by the prophets,...whose writings — the memoirs of the 
Apostles,” or the books of the Prophets (τὰ ἀπομνημο- 
νεύματα τῶν ἀποστόλων ἢ τὰ συγγράμματα τῶν προφητῶν) 
— were read each Sunday (τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου λεγομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ) in the public 
assembly ;” for ‘‘we have been commanded by Christ 
Himself to obey not the teaching of men (avSpwretos 
διδάγμασι, but that which hath been proclaimed by the blessed prophets 
and taught by Him.” 

How glorious was the prophet’s office in Justin’s opinion we may ima- 
gine when he says, “ that we must not suppose that the 
language (λέξεις) proceeds from the men who are inspired, 
but from the divine Word which moves them (μὴ ἀπ᾽ 
αὐτῶν τῶν ἐμπεπνευσμένων, ἀλλ᾽ ἀπὸ τοῦ κινοῦντος αὐτοὺς 
Selov λόγου). Their work is to announce that which the 
Holy Spirit, descending upon them, purposes, through them, to teach those 
who wish to learn the true religion” (τὴν ἀληϑῆ ϑηοσέ- 
βειαν)Ὶ ‘For neither by nature nor human thought 
(ἐννοίᾳ) can men recognize such great and divine truths, but by the gift 
which came down from aboye upon the holy men [under the Jewish 
dispensation], who needed no art of words, nor skill in captious and con- 
tentious speaking, but only to offer themselves in purity (καϑαροὺς mapa- 


The Prophets. 


Dial. ce. 119. 
The New Testa- 
ment. 


Apol. i. 67, 


Dial. 48, 


The 
Office. 
Apol i. 86. (ef. ¢. 
38, and Apol. ii. 10, 
Cohort. 35). 


Prophet's 


Cohort. c. 8. 


1 The elders quoted by Irenzus make 
use of the writings of the New Testa- 
ment as well as of those of the Old ( Hist. 
of N. T. Canon, pp. 87, 88); and Euse- 
bius (H. #. 111. 87) speaks of Evangel- 
ists in the reign of Trajan as ‘striving 
to deliver to others the Scripture of the 
divine Gospels (τὴν τῶν Selwy εὐαγ- 
γελίων ypapny).” 

2.1. e., our Gospels (Hist. of N. T. 
Canon, pp. 115 ff.). It is very important 


to observe that the two classes of writ- 
ings — the apostolic and the prophetic — 
are placed in the same rank through- 
out; for the Apostles, ‘“‘ by the power of 
God, announced to every race of men 
the Word of God, as they were sent by 
Christ (Matt. xxviii. 20) to teach all” 
(Apol, τ. 89). Justin refers to “John, 
one of the Apostles,” as having prophe- 
sied (Dial. c. 81). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 409 


σχεῖν) to the operation of the Divine Spirit, in order that the divine power 
of itself might reveal to us the knowledge of divine and heavenly things, 
acting on just men as a plectrum on a harp or lyre” (iva αὐτὸ τὸ ϑεῖον et 
οὐρανοῦ κατιὸν πλῆκτρον, ὥσπερ ὀργάνῳ κιϑάρας τινὸς ἢ λύρας τοῖς δικαίοις 
ἄνδρασι χρώμενον, τὴν τῶν ϑείων ἡμῖν καὶ οὐρανίων ἀποκαλύψῃ yraow)- 
However strictly we may be inclined to interpret Justin’s metaphor, we 
must remember (as has been well observed) that the tone and quality of 
the note depend as much upon the instrument as upen the hand which 
plays 10. And how can we listen to the full and deep harmonies of the 
Bible without feeling that more than half their power and beauty lies in 
the divine union of the different human instruments through which the 
Spirit speaks, ‘ perfecting one full message of salvation 
for those who will discern it, stopping and staying every 
inworking of the evil spirit, even as the strain of David stayed the evil 
spirit which oppressed the soul of Saul ’”’ ¢ 

Justin’s view of the Interpretation of Scripture is perfectly consistent 
with his doctrine of Inspiration. ‘ There are,” he tells 
us, “many revelations veiled in parables and mysteries, perce ng i 
or expressed in symbolic actions, which prophets ex- 
plained who arose after those who spoke and acted; ” and “ there is no 
profit in quoting the words or facts of Scripture unless 
we are able to render an account of them, a gift which 
cometh [to Christians] by the great grace of God ;” for “the Scriptures 
belong to the Christian, and not to the Jew, who when he 
reads does not understand their meaning (νοῦν). Thus Geena 70 
he says, in his dialogue with Trypho, that “he can prove The Ceremonial 
by a careful enumeration that all the ordinances of Moses ee 52 OF 
were types and symbols and indications (καταγγελίας) of “μοι. κ. 325 Dial. § 
those things which were to be realized in the Messiah” % 
(τῷ Χριστῷ γενέσϑαι). The twelve bells which hung 
round the robe of the high-priest prefigured the twelve Apostles who were 
united “with our eternal Priest, by whose voice the 
whole earth was filled with the glory and grace of God 
and Christ.” The Paschal Lamb was a type of the death of Christ, even 
as the two goats at the great Fast set forth His two 
Advents, and the offering of fine flour in the case of 
leprosy, ‘‘ the remembrance of His Passion” in the Eucharist. 

Justin finds an equally deep significance in the facts recorded in the 
Old Testament. He sees symbols of the Cross in the “el 
tree of Life —in the brazen serpent —in Moses, as he τον Hoare ἴδ 
stood victorious over Amalek— in the ensign of Judah, Dial. §§ 86; 151: 
“whose horns are as the horns of a unicorn” (Deut. 50: (¢ MD; 91; 

exe - Apol. i. 55. 
Xxxiiil. 17) — and in the very form of man. So, also, 
the events of patriarchal history are pregnant with meaning. The mar- 


Orig. in Matt. it. 


Dial. § 92. 


Soe 1. § 42, 


Dial. § 40. 


Dial. § 41. 


1 See the passage of Hippolytus quoted below, § Iv. 4, p. 410. 
35 


410 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


riages of Jacob with Leah and Rebecca prefigured the union of Jesus 
with the Synagogue and the Christian Church: the 


Dial. § 134. 


cealed the gross gods of her fathers. 


spiritual sight of the Jews was weak, and Rachel con- 


These examples of the method of Interpretation which Justin followed 


will suffice.t 
Dial. § 134. 


Dial. § 131 f. 


We may add, however, that he does not 
seem ever to deny the literal truth of the narratives 
which furnish him with these divine analogies ; on the 


contrary, in some cases he insists on the bare interpretation of the text 


with unnecessary strictness. 


3. The apologetic discourse of Tatian, Justin’s disciple, affords him 


3. TATIAN. 


and of the Christian. 


little scope for speaking of inspiration; yet he draws a 
striking contrast between the positions of the heathen 
“The Spirit of God,” he says, “is not with all 


men, but abiding with some whose conversation is just (παρά τισι τοῖς 
δικαίως πολιτευομένοις καταγόμενον), and being united with their soul 


§ 13. 


(συμπλεκόμενον τῇ ψυχῇ) it proclaimed to all other souls, 
by prophetic teaching, that which had been hidden; and 


those which obeyed wisdom attracted (ἐφείλκοντο) to themselves a kindred 


§ 29. 


spirit, while those who did not obey....were found to fight 
against their God.” 


In another place he notices the 


great antiquity of Scripture, and says that its prophetic power (7d mpoy- 
νωστικὸν τῶν μελλόντων) was one of the grounds on which he was led to 


believe in its doctrine.” 


4. ATHENAGO- 
RAS. 

Leg. pro Christ. 
§ 9. ‘ 
of Montanism. 


4. The language of Athenagoras, when speaking of 
the Prophets, is perhaps without parallel, and it has been 
regarded, with good reason, as expressing the doctrine 
He says that, “while entranced and 


deprived of their natural powers of reason (κατ᾽ ἔκστασιν τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς Ao- 


1 Justin’s principles in this respect 
may have been modified by his resi- 
dence at Alexandria. He speaks with 
admiration of Philo and Josephus ((Co- 
hort. c. 10), and argues that the old 
philosophers ‘* were compelled, by the 
Divine Providence acting in behalf of 
men, to say many things in support of 
Christianity” (Cohort. c. 14, πολλὰ 
kal αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τῆς Selas τῶν avSpd- 
πων προνοίας καὶ ἄκοντες ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν 
εἰπεῖν ἠναγκάσϑησαν). 


2 He quotes John i. 5, with the words, 
“This is that which was said (7d eipn- 
μένον). 

The accounts of his Diatessaron are 
too vague to enable us to form any 
clear idea of its purpose. Eusebius 


(H. E. tv. 29) describes it ‘‘ as a strange 
harmony and combination of the [four] 
Gospels;”” nor does there seem any 
reason to suppose, with Neander (Ch. 
Hist. 1. 167, n. Eng. Tr.), that apocry- 
phal traditions were wrought into it. 
We find it used by many who followed 
the apostolic teaching (ἀποστολικοῖς 
ἑπόμενοι δόγμασι. Theodor. Fab. 
Her. τ. 20), and it commenced with the 
words, “In the beginning was the 
Word.” Its similarity to the “ Gospel 
of the Hebrews” probably arose from 
the omission of the history of the In- 
fancy, which would militate against 
Tatian’s Gnosticism (Epiphan. ΧΙ ΥΊ 1; 
Theodor. 1. c. Cf. Olshausen, Ueber die 
Echtheit u.s, w. 8. 835 ff.; Hist. of N. 
T. Canon, pp. 858 ff.). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 411 


γισμῶν) by the influence of the divine Spirit, they uttered that which was 
wrought in them (ἃ evnpyodvro), the Spirit using them as its instruments, 
as a flute-player might blow a flute.” And again, under another image, 
he describes “the Holy Spirit, which works in those 
who speak prophetically, as an emanation issuing from 
God, and carried back to Him, like a ray from the sun” (ἀπόῤῥοιαν τοῦ 
Seod ἀπόῤῥεον καὶ ἐπαναφερόμενον ὡς ἀκτῖνα ἡλίου). ‘Thus the Christian 
“gives no heed to the doctrines of men, but those " 
uttered (Seopdros) and taught by God;” for “he has ae 
prophets as witnesses of his creed (ὧν νοοῦμεν καὶ πεπιστεύκαμεν), who, 
inspired (read ἔνϑεοι for évdéw) by the Spirit, have spoken of God and 
the things of God.” 1} 

5. Far different is the language of Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, — 
sixth in succession from the Apostles, — who addressed 
an admirable defence of Christianity, still extant, to a = Eused. HW. E. iv. 
heathen, Autolycus. According to him, the inspired “Ὁ: 
writers were not mere mechanical organs, but men who, coincidently with 
the divine influence, displayed a personal and moral fitness for their 
work. “The men of God being filled with the Holy 
Spirit (πνευματοφόροι Πνεύματος ᾿Αγίου) and gifted with 
prophecy, having inspiration and wisdom from God, were taught of Him, 
and became holy and just. Wherefore, also, they were deemed worthy to 
obtain this recompense, to be made the instruments of God (ὄργανα ϑεοῦ 
γενόμενοι) and receive (χωρήσαντες) the wisdom which cometh from Him, 
by which wisdom they spake of the creation of the world and all other 
things... which happened before their birth, and during their own time, 
and which are now being accomplished in our days; and 
so we are convinced that in things to come the event 
will be as they say.” Again, he adds, that ‘‘the Christians alone haye 
received the truth, inasmuch as they are taught by the Holy Spirit, who 
spake by the holy prophets, and [still] announces all things to them 
beforehand (τοῦ λαλήσαντος ἐν Tots ἁγίοις προφήταις καὶ τὰ πάντα προκατ- 
αγγέλλοντος) :᾿ who is “the Beginning and Wisdom 


§ 10. 


81]. 


5. THEOPHILUS. 


ad Aut. vi. 9. 


ti. § 33. 


: ii. § 10. 
and the Power of the Most High,” so that “the words εἰ. § 84. 
of the prophets are the words of God.”’ Moreover, ‘the bc lia 


contents of the Prophets and of the Gospels are found to be consistent (ἀκό- 
λουϑα), because all the writers spake by the inspiration of the one Spirit 
of God 2 (διὰ τὸ τοὺς πάντας πνευματοφόρους ἑνὶ πνεύματι: Seod χλελαληκέναι). 


1 It is singular that there is scarcely 
any trace of Allegorical Interpretation 
in Athenagoras. See Guericke, Hist. 


compingens). Cf. ad Autol. ii, 22: 
- “all the holy Scriptures teach us 
and all who were inspired by the Moly 


Schole Catech. Alex. ii. p. 50. 

2 We learn from Jerome that Theoph- 
ilus composed a Commentary on the 
Gospels (in Evangelium, ἐ. e., τὸ εὐαγ- 
γέλιον); or perhaps a harmony (IV. 
Evangelistarum in unum opus dicta 


Spirit (πνευματοφόροι), of whom was 
John (Evan.i.8).”? Rosenmiiller (Hist. 
Interp. i. 1, p. 200) quotes this passage 
to prove that Theophilus * distinguishes 
between the sacred ‘ Scriptures’ and the 
writings of the Apostles.» Surely the 


412 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


SECT. III. — THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH OF ASIA MINOR. 


Ὁ ἔχων οὖς ἀκουσάτω τί τὸ πνεῦμα λέγει ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις. -- ΑῬοσ. ii. 7, 11,13. 


1. We have just seen that the early apologies for Christianity proceeded 
from heathen converts; in like manner, the first endeavor 


1. HEGESIPPUS. 


after an ecclesiastical history was made by a Hebraizing 


Christian, with whom the historical side of his faith had naturally the 


fullest significance. 


The fragments of Hegesippus contain little or noth- 


ing which bears on our inquiry; yet in one sentence, 


Ht. E. tv. 22. 


preserved in Eusebius, he seems to recognize authorita- 


tive Christian documents when he says that “in each city all is ordered 
according to the preaching (κηρύσσει) of the Law, of the Prophets, and of 


the Lord.” 


2. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, helps us by the titles of some of his trea- 


2. MELITO. 
ap. Hieron. de 


Vir. Ill. δ. κυ. ap. 
Euseb. 11. E. v. 24. 


tises, and by his own personal reputation. 
from ‘Tertullian that he was accounted a prophet by 
very many, and Polycrates describes him as “having 
transacted everything by the Holy Spirit” (ὁ ἐν “Ay. Ty. 


We learn 


πάντα πολιτευσάμενος). Among his works we find discourses “ On [Chris- 
tian] Conversation (zoA:refas) and Prophets,’ —“ On 


Buseb. H. FE. w. 

26. 
Routh, Rell. Sa- 

cre, t. pp. 116 sqq. 


*Sithey Seyi 


Prophecy,” — ‘On the Revelation of St. John,” — and 
The last-mentioned book necessarily sug- 
gests to us an anticipation of the Alexandrian school ; 


and some examples of Melito’s exegesis, probably bor- 

rowed from it, sufficiently indicate the extent to which he carried the 
typical significance of each word and detail of Scripture.? 

3. A fragment of Claudius Apollinaris® furnishes us with another 


distinetion can be of little use to lower 
the authority of St. John. Elsewhere 
(ad Autol. 111. 14) Theophilus quotes an 
injunction of St. Paul (1 Tim. ii.) as an 
utterance of ‘the Divine Word.” 

In one passage (ad Awtol. τι. 14), The- 
ophilus draws a mystical meaning 
from the Mosaic account of the crea- 
tion, but he also accepts all the details 
literally. 


1In another fragment, given by 
Routh (fed. Saer. τ. p. 208, Ed. 1), he is 
represented as saying that ‘‘ those who 
maintain the doctrine of 1 Cor. ii. 9, lie 
against the holy Scriptures and the 
Lord. Matt. xiii. 16.” If there be no 
error in this quotation, it is a strange 
example of the literal style of interpre- 


tation which Origen had to meet. Cf. 
Hist. of N. T. Canon, p. 283, n. 

2 Eusebius (H. Ε. 1v. 26) has preserved 
an important letter of Melito, in which 
he relates what he has done to satisfy 
a friend’s wish to become acquainted 
with the ‘“‘ Scriptures of the Old Testa- 
ment” (τὰ τῆς παλαίας SiadjKns βιβ- 
λία). The phrase seems to imply New 
Testament Seriptures also. 

8. Τῇ connection with this name we 
may quote the remarkable words of 
Serapion (Bp. of Antioch in the reign 
of Commodus) in reference to the false 
Gospel of St. Peter: “ We receive Peter 
and the other Apostles as Christ; but 
those writings falsely ascribed to him 
we decline to receive through our ex- 
perience” (Kuseb. H. £. vi. 12). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 415 


instance of the typical interpretation of Scripture; but without dwelling 
any longer on these minute details, we must proceed (4) 
to the great work of Irenzeus, which unfortunately has 
come down to us chiefly through the uncertain medium 
of a Latin version,! for no Greek MS. is known to 
exist. Reared under the teaching of Polycarp,? — whose 
words, he tells us, he remembered better than the events 
of his later life, — and succeeding a martyr in the bishopric of Lyons, Ire- 
nzus is a noble representative of the faith and zeal of the early Church. 

‘hen only does he seem to forget his master’s lessons of peace and love, 
when he contends against those who deny the continual manifestation of 
God’s Spirit in His Church, or of His providence in the 
world. So full and comprehensive is his treatment of 
inspiration, though he only discusses it incidentally, that 
it is difficult to convey a notion of its general bearing by isolated quota- 
tions. According to him, the successive dispensations of God wrought 
together to one great end by the operation of one Power, 


8. CLAUDIUS 
APOLLINARIS. 

Mouth, i. p. 150. 

4, IREN2ZUS. 


Euseb. Hf, E. v. 20. 


General view of 
Inspiration. 


meee oat adv. Her. ww. 
as ‘men were accustomed to bear (porture) God’s Spirit 14, 2. 
and hold communion with Him.” Thus “the prophet LN 


spake of the advent of the Word in the flesh, as acted on by His influence 
(charisma) ;” and ‘‘all who foretold the coming of 
Christ received their inspiration from the Son;” for 
“how could Scripture testify, as it does, of Him alone, 
unless all things had been revealed by one and the same God, through 
the Word, to believers?” Yet till His advent “ Christ was, as it were, the 
hidden treasure in the field of Scripture, since He was 
[only] indicated by types and parables ;...for all proph- 
ecy, till its accomplishment, is full of riddles and ambiguities to men.” 
To us, however, “ the Apostles, by the will of God, have 
consigned (tradiderunt) the Gospel in the Scriptures to 
be the ground and pillar of our faith,...and by them we 
have learnt the truth, that is, the doctrine of the Son of God......For after 
that our Lord rose from the dead, and they were clothed 
with the power of the Spirit from on high, they were 
filled with a perfect knowledge in all things” (de omnibus adimpleti sunt, et 
habuerunt perfectam agnitionem).2 Consequently ‘‘ they 
are beyond all falsehood” (extra omne mendaciun), 
though they speak “according to the capacity of their hearers, talking 


νυ, 2. 
iv. 11, 1. 


tv. 26, 1. 


iii.1, 1. 
iii. pref: 


iii. 1, 1. 


tit. 5. 


1 Massuet’s remarks on Irenzus’ view 
of Scripture are so essentially polemical 
as to be almost valueless (Dissert. 111. 
1, 2). 

2In connection with this name we 
may again refer to the letter of Poly- 
crates (Bp. of Smyrna in the reign of 
Severus), in which he tells us ‘“ that 
having examined the whole of holy 


Scripture (on the question of Easter), 
he is not afraid of his opposers; for 
those greater than himself have said, 
It is right to obey God rather than 
man” (Euseb. Hl. EZ. v. 24). 

3 So again (111. 12, 5): αὗται φωναὶ 
τῶν μαδϑητῶν Tov κυρίου τῶν ἀληδῶς 
τελείων μετὰ τὴν ἀνάλεψιν τοῦ κυρίου 
διὰ πνεύματος τελειωϑέντων. . .. 


ϑδ᾽ 


414 ON TNE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


blindly with the blind” (cecis ceca confabulantes). Tach, too, preserves 
his own individuality ; thus, ‘St. Paul frequently uses 
hyperbata on account of the rapidity of his utterance 
and the vehemence of the Spirit which is in him (propter velocitatem ser- 
monum suorum et propter impetum qui in ipso est spiritts) ; as, for instance, 
in Gal. ili. 19 we must suppose a man asking the question and the Spirit 
answering it; and so, again, in 2 Thess. ii. 3.” But we must not imagine 
that the truth was thus impaired by the human agent, or the significance 
of words destroyed. ‘‘ Matthew might have said, ‘ The 
generation of Jesus was on this wise,’ but the Holy 
Spirit, foreseeing the corruptions of the truth, and fortifying us against 
their deception, says, by Matthew, ‘The generation of Christ was on this 
wise.’ ” 

Moreover, Irenzeus sees a mystical fulness and meaning in the four 
Evangelists: ‘ As God made all things in fair order and 
connection, so was it needful that the [outward] form of 
the Gospel should be well framed and fitted together ;”’ 
and “as there are four! regions of the world in which 
we are, and four general winds, —as the Church is scattered over the 
whole earth, and the Gospel is the pillar and support (στήριγμα) of the 
Church, —we might expect it should have four pillars [and four winds as 
it were], breathing on all sides immortality, and kindling [the divine 
spark] in men,” Again: as inthe ancient Church the visible form of God 
rested on the four-faced cherubim, “50 Christ, when mani- 
fested to men, gave us his Gospel under a fourfold form, 
though held together by one spirit,” and on these Gospels he rests (τὰ 
εὐαγγέλια ἐν ois ἐγκαδϑέζεται ὁ Χριστός). 

In many of his general views of Scripture, Irenzus anticipates the 

Deeper meaning ‘thoughts and language of Origen. He tells us that “the 
of Scripture. Scriptures are perfect, inasmuch as they were uttered 

ee (dicte) by the Word of God and His Spirit, though we 
want the knowledge of their mysteries ;”” and how much, he adds, is unex- 
plained to us in the operations of nature — the rising of the Nile, the 
migration of birds, the ebb and flow of the tide; ‘‘is it, then, a hard 
case that—as in the outward world some truths are, as it were, sacred to 
God (ἀνάκειται τῷ Θεῷ), while some have come under our knowledge — 
some of the difficulties in the Scriptures, which are all full of spiritual 
meaning (πνευματικῶν), should be explicable by the grace of God, while 
the solution of others must rest with Him, and that not only in this world 
(αἰών), but also in the world to come ; that God may still teach, and man 
still ever learn from God?”’ The revelations of the Bible may seem too 
meagre to satisfy our curiosity ; yet “no small punishment (ἐπιτιμία) will 
be his who adds to or takes from the Scripture.” The details may seem 


τ΄ 
Ube be 


iii. 16, 2. 


The Gospels. 
wii. 11, 9. 
iii. Tl, 8. 


tit. 11, 8. 


1 Compare a very striking passage in Routh, Fell. Sacre, 111. 456; Crosnier, 
the symbolism of the number four ina Jconogr. Christ. pp. 50, 51; Philo, de 
fragment of Victorinus, de Fabr. Celi; M. §§ 15, 16. 


ON TIE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 415 


insignificant; yet ‘nothing is empty or without meaning in the dealings 
of God.” The connection of its parts may seem per- 
plexing ; yet “all Scripture, as it has been given to peaene xiii. 83 
us by God, will be found to be harmonious.” The — azii. 13,19. 
interpretation of its teaching may be difficult; yet ve 
“we guard our faith, which has been admitted (per- 
ceptam) by the Church, and which, like a precious gift 
stored up in a fair vessel, is ever renewed (rejuvenescens) by the Spirit of 
God, and gives new life (rejuvenescere facit) to the vessel in which it is. 
For this gift of God is entrusted to the Church, to give life to the world 
(ad inspirationem plasmation’) as the soul to the body, and in it [the gifts 
of faith entrusted to the Church] lies the enjoyment of the Holy Spirit 
sent by Christ, which is the earnest of our immortality, the confirmation 
of our faith, the ladder by which we ascend to God. For where the 
Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, 
there is the Church and all grace; but the Spirit is Truth;” and Truth is 
one; for we acknowledge as one the God of Creation and the God of 
Redemption, the author of the old dispensation and 
the author of the new; “we follow Him alone as our 
Teacher, and regard His words as the rule of Truth” (regulam veritatis 
habentes ejus sermones). 

The doctrine of Irenzeus on the Millennium illustrates his view of the 
literal truth of Scripture, while it also shows the influ- 
ence of his Asiatic master. On other occasions, also, he δ ίρεσαι Inter- 
adheres so strictly to the text as to draw arguments from eae 
isolated details of parables, and the natural coloring of language ; more- 
over, he strongly opposes the system of the Gnostics, who 
based the truth of their opinions on numerical analogies 
and verbal symbols, though he himself admits the propriety of such subtle 
inquiries when pursued for the illustration of that which Peres 
is admitted on other grounds. There can be no doubt  @& Stieren Le. 
that he recognizes an under sense (ὑπόνοια) in Scripture, one a 
and allows the symbolic meaning of the gifts and sacri- Ἧς 
fices of the Mosaic law, since heavenly truths can only be conveyed under 
earthly forms. Again, he sees figures of national and 
individual application in the records of the chosen 
people, — as when he acknowledges a type of the Gentile church in the 
marriage of Moses with the /&thiopian, and explains at 
some length the history of the birth of Phares and Zara, 
as foreshadowing the fortunes of the two covenants.1 
In another place he contrasts the mother of the human race with the 
mother of the Saviour: “ What the Virgin Eve bound by her want of 
faith, that the Virgin Mary loosed by her faith.” He finds types of Christ 


. 
3. 
2. 


tii, 24. 


iv. 35. 


iv. 33; ti. 54,1. 


History. 


tv. 20, 12. 
iv. 25, 2. 


1 This method of typical interpreta- dition (presbyter diccbat) in the case of 
tion he justifies by the authority of tra- the spoiling of the Egyptians. iy. 80,1. 


416 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


in the rod of Moses, “ which, assuming a body (incarnata), confuted and 
destroyed all the opposition of the Egyptians ! to the dis- 
pensation of God ”’— in the brazen serpent —in Joseph 
—and in Joshua, who completed what Moses had com- 
menced, and for manua gave the people corn, which is 
“the first-fruits of life.” 

In many cases the explanations of Irenzeus seem arbitrary and inco- 
herent, from the want of any such general principle as 
guided the speculations of Origen. ‘Thus he finds a 
type of the Church in Lot’s wife, who became a pillar of sali, and, accord- 
ing to tradition, unchanging and incorruptible. Again, 
le likens the boy who led Samson to John the Baptist, 
and the two pillars of the building which he destroyed, to 
the two Covenants by which the world is supported. We are told, more- 
over, that he interpreted the Fall spiritually, and not historically, and 
maintained his view by very weighty arguments. 

The instances already quoted clearly show the general principles which 
Ireneus applied to Holy Scripture, acknowledging at 
once the mysteries of its letter? and of its spirit. To 
this inner sense of the Word of God he tells us that the 
Christian will ever strive to penetrate, by the help of 
daily experience and the use of appointed ordinances ;* he will gather all 
the analogies of the outer world which may serve to direct his judgment, 
and scrutinize all the records of revelation which may enlighten his 
mind and extend his knowledge. The works of nature and the words of 
God combine to train and perfect the race of man, “in 
which are accomplished those mysteries into which 
angels desire to look, that they may trace the workings of that Wisdom 
by which Creation is made conformable and united to the Son.” 


ti. 22, 4. 

ai. 21, 8. 

iv. 2,7; fr. p. 346, 
ed. Bened.; fr. p. 
840. 


Indefinite. 


iv. 81, 3. 
Ji. p. 346. 
Jr. p. 343, 


Scripture to be 
combined with na- 
ture. 

iv. 32. 


v. 36f 


SECT. I1V.— THE FATHERS OF THE ROMAN CHURCI. 


“Ὅσα mpoeypapn, εἰς τὴν ἡμετέραν διδασκαλίαν προεγράφη. --- Rom. xv. 4. 


There is something mournful in the silent, shadowy line of Roman 
bishops during the first three centuries; their voices seem only to be 


1 The relations of the Jews to the 
Egyptians are perpetuated in those of 
the Christian Church to the unbelieving 
world in all ages. Iv. 80. 

2 In his explanation of the history of 
Lot (Gen. xxx. 380-8), he evidently 
maintains its real truth, while he justi- 
fies the relation as properly typical. 

8 Cf. πὶ. 4, 1; Iv. 88, 8; for further 


illustration of Irenzus’ views on the 
Church. He speaks in a very remark- 
able passage (11. 8, 4, ef. Euseb. H. 2. 
v.7) of the continuance of the powers 
of exorcism, prophecy, and healing in 
the Church at his own time. Compare, 
also, for a strong assertion of the same 
belief, the author quoted by Eusebius, 
fs GY OES. oe i 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 417 


heard when they claim the powers which their successors gained. The 
only famous Roman writers of the period were Caius and Novatian, who 
were presbyters, and Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, whose education was 
wholly Eastern. Yet we must remember here the prac- Tin one 
tical tendencies of the national character, which were alike Eused. H. E. iv. 
displayed in the absence of theological studies, and in 23. 

that zealous liberality which was regarded as the traditional glory of the 
Roman Church. 

1. In afragment preserved in Eusebius, Caius seems to regard “ reve- 
lations” as a mark of an apostle, and in the same place 
uses the striking phrase, ‘‘the Scriptures of God.’ In 
another fragment, which is attributed by some to Caius, the writer speaks 
of the followers of Artemon, “who fearlessly laid their 
hands on the divine Scriptures, saying that they cor- 
rected them...How great is the daring of their error,” he 
adds, “cannot be unknown even to themselves; for either they do not 
believe that the divine Scriptures were spoken by the Holy Spirit (‘Aye 
Πνεύματι λελέχϑαι), and are unbelievers; or they hold themselves wiser 
than the Holy Spirit, and we must say they rave” (δαιμονῶσιν). 

2. The famous fragment on the Canon had been falsely attributed to 
Caius, but it is certainly of the same date.2 We find in 
this, probably, the first distinct recognition of the Inspi- 
ration of the Gospels, which are regarded as formally 
divergent, yet one in their great end. “Though various elements aro 
inculeated (/icet varia principia doceantur) in each, still 
the faith of believers differs not, since everything con- 
cerning the Nativity and Passion and Life [of our Lord] 
is declared in all of them by one and the self-same guiding Spirit” (uno 
et principali® Spiritu). 

3. The writings of Novatian are full of quotations from the Old and 
New Testaments, and his view of their authority is clear 
and wide. He regards the whole Law as spiritual, “for 
divine ordinances must be received in a divine sense ;” 
and traces the symbolic meaning of the Mosaic restrictions on food. 
The books of the prophets furnish him with a clear proof 
of God’s providence, “which not only extends at all 
times over individuals, but also over cities and states, 
whose issues God declared by the words of His servants (vocibus prophe- 
tarum cecinit), yea, even over the whole world.” And the forms of the 
prophetic language prove the certainty of their predic- 
tions ; for they use the past tense in speaking of the fu- 
ture, since “‘divine Scripture regards as accomplished that which will, 


1. Carus. 


Euseb. v. 98: cf. 
Routh, vi. p. 18 sqq. 


2. Fragm. de 
Canone. 


Routh, Rell, 
Sacre, iv. 3. 


8. NOVATIAN. 
de cid. Jud. ec. 2. 


de Trin. c. 8. 
(ed. Rig.). 


de Trin. ec. 28. 


1 Κήρινϑος ὁ δὲ ἀποκαλύψεων ὡς ϑρὸς ὑπάρχων ταῖς γραφαῖς Tod Θεοῦ 
ὑπὸ ἀποστόλου μεγάλου γεγραμμένων .. . Euseb. H. E. 111. 28. 
τερατολογίας . .. ἐπεισάγει... €X- 2 Cf. Hist. of N. T. Canon, pp. 235 ff. 

3 i. e., ἡγεμονικῷ, cf. Routh, 1. c. 


418 ON TUE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


beyond all doubt, come to pass.” Yet more grace was given to the writers 
of the New Covenant, for though ‘the prophets and 
Apostles were inspired by one and the self-same Spirit, 
still on the former He came but fora time (ad momentum), while He 
abode with the latter always. To the one some degree of His influence 
was vouchsafed ; on the other His whole energy was poured. In the one 
case it was a scanty gift, in the other a bounteous loan (large commodatus), 
not set forth before the resurrection, but conferred by it according to 
Christ’s promise (John xiv. 26) of a Comforter, ..... who strengthened 
the hearts and minds of the Apostles, who made clear to them the 
mysteries of the Gospel (distinxit evangelica sacramenta), who dwelt 
within them and enlightened their minds on divine things.” 

4. There appears to be no reason for doubting the tradition which 
represents Hippolytus of Portus as the disciple of Ire- 
nus. In him we find a real link between the Asiatic 
and Alexandrian schools, for Jerome tells us that he preached before 
Origen. His writings exhibit the same deep sense of the spiritual mean- 
ing of Scripture! as we have already traced in his immediate teacher and 
in earlier writers. He regards that which has once been revealed by 
God to man as still full of instruction and wisdom after 
the primary application is gone. ‘The Law and the 
Prophets were from God, who in giving them compelled 
Ilis messenger to speak by the Holy Spirit, that receiving the inspiration 
of the Father’s power (τῆς πατρῴας δυνάμεως τὴν ἀπόπνοιαν λαβόντες) 
they may announce the Father’s counsel and will. In 
these men therefore the Word found a fitting abode 
(πολιτευόμενος) and spoke of Himself; for even then 
He came as His own herald, showing the Word who was about to 
appear in the world.”...... 

“These blessed men ....spake not only of the past, but also of the 
present and of the future, that they might be shown not to be for a time 
merely (πρόσκαιροι), but heralds of the things to come to all generations. 
..... For these Fathers, having been perfected by the Spirit of prophecy, 
and worthily honored by the Word Himself, were brought to an inner 
harmony (ἑαυτοῖς ἡνωμένοι), like instruments, and having the Word within 
them, as it were, to strike the notes (ὡς πλῆκτρον) by Him they were 
moved, and announced that which God wished. For they did not speak 
of their own power (be well assured),? nor proclaim that which they 


τὰ. α. 29. 


4, ΠΡΡΟΙΥΤυΒ. 


6. Noetum, §§ 11, 
12. 


de Antichristo, 


§ 2. 


1 See de Antichr. §§ 14, 15, 23, He 
quotes Rey. xiii. 10, and suggests the 
words TEITAN, EYAN@AC, and 
AATEINOG, as satisfying the number 
which ‘tthe Holy Spirit mystically 
showed forth” (de Antichr. 50). The 
same names are given by Irenaus (vy. 
80). See others in Feyardentius’s note; 
the zealous Franciscan quotes ‘* Martin 


Lauter’ as one ‘‘ who could not escape 
the name of Antichrist,” but inclines to 
adopt ‘‘ Maometis” as the true solution 
of the number. For acomparison of the 
“allegories” of Hippolytus with those 
of Origen, see Bunsen, 1. 802 (ed. 1). 

2 Μὴ πλανῶ: this parenthetical 
phrase occurs also in [Hipp.] adv. Her. 
x. 83 (Bunsen, 1. p. 272). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 419 


wished themselves, but first they were rightly endowed with wisdom by 
the Word, and afterwards well foretaught of the future by visions, and 
then, when thus assured (πεπεισμένοι), they spake that which was 
[revealed] to them alone by God.” 

Tt will be readily seen how widely this view is removed from that of 
Athenagoras, though conveyed under a similar metaphor, differing from 
it, indeed, just as the analogous description of Justin. The instrument 
here is first tuned to express the Divine strain; the moving power dwells | 
within as a vivifying principle, and does not act from without on an invol- 
untary subject. The reason is cleared and not clouded; the melodies 
of heaven are fitted to the words of men, not by an arbitrary power, but 
by an inward affinity. “The blessed prophets,” to use another image, 
‘are eyes of Christ.” ‘They ministered the oracles of God for all gen- 
erations.” So, then, it is our duty to listen to the faintest voice of the 
Bible, to trace its relation to ourselves and its source 
from above us: “ As the divine Scriptures proclaimed 
the truth, so let us view it; all they teach let us acknowledge by the 
growth of Faith (ἐπιγνῶμεν) ; as the Father pleaseth to be believed, let 
us believe Him; as the Son pleaseth to be glorified, let us glorify Him; 
as the Holy Spirit pleaseth to be given, let us receive Him; not according 
to our own choice, or our own mind (νοῦν), forcing to our own tastes 
that which has been given by God, but as He chose to show the truth 
through the Holy Scriptures, so let us view it.” 


c. Noet. § 1. 


SECT. V.— THE FATHERS OF THE NORTH-AFRICAN CUURCH. 
τῷ πνεύματι (éovTes. — Rom. xit. 11. 


We have now traced the history of the doctrine of Inspiration as 
unfolded in the Greek and Roman Churches; we have Ἐπάν ον 
seen the same great principles enunciated by those who the North Ayrican 
claimed to draw their doctrine from St. John, and by poe aps other 
those who sought to base their authority on St. Peter. : 
Whether it were viewed as part of the heritage of that wide Christian 
family which Irenzeus loved to contemplate, or as the bond of that great 
power which silently grew at Rome, Holy Scripture was still held to 
supply the believer with the divine elements of his life and faith. We have 
yet to consider our subject in relation to two other Churches, and two 
other forms of mental development — those of North Africa and Egypt. 
In the writers of North Africa, whether at Carthage or Hippo, we find an 
intensity of zeal, a depth of feeling, a power of intuition, but little modified 
by cautious criticism or severe logic. The aspirations of Tertullian after 
a stricter life led him into Montanism; and the craving for a clearer 
knowledge at first united Augustine with the Manichees. We shall thus 
see how the doctrine of Inspiration was regarded by men of a warmer 


420 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


temperament and a more restless faith, who sought out the truth with 
earnestness, and embraced whatever conclusion they obtained without 
reserve. Indeed, the whole character of the African Church is emotional, 
if we would distinguish it from the doctrinal and practical types of Asia 
and Rome. But while the Churches of North Africa, Asia, and Rome, 
combined to look at Christianity as a great historic fact, rather than as 
the final satisfaction of the ill-expressed wants of man, the Alexandrians 
sought to follow out this latter view, by bringing all that was grand and 
beautiful in human systems into a spiritual harmony with Divine Truth. 

1. On one point, it has been well observed,! Tertullian never doubted ; 
whether Catholic or Mortanist, he still maintained alike 
the Inspiration of the Old and New Testament Scrip- 
tures. Whether he be writing to the heathen, the heretics, or the ortho- 
dox, he expresses the same belief in the same unwayering language. He 
tells us in his noble Apology that “God sent forth, from 
the first, men who, by their justice and innocency, were 
worthy to know God and to make Him known, and filled them to over- 
flowing (inundatos) with the Divine Spirit;”....and so “gave us a 
written Testament? (‘nstrumentum litterature), that we 
might more fully and more deeply learn of Him, and of 
Tlis counsels, and of His will.” Nor does he scruple to 
call these books the “writings” (litteras Dei) and the ‘“‘ words of God” 
(voces Dez), which the Christian studies for warning or 
remembrance, and to which he looks “as the food of his 
faith, the spring of his hope, and the bulwark of his trust.” 

Like all the other Fathers whom we have examined, Tertullian sees a 
profound unity in the dispensations of God. “The same 
divine power (divinitas) was preached in the Gospel 
which had ever been known in the Law, though the dis- 
cipline was not the same.” “ὙΠῸ Law, indeed, is the 
root (radix) of the Gospels;”? and ‘in succession all 
the Prophets utter the words of the same God (0s prophetarum ejusdem Dei 
vocibus sonat), enforcing the same law by an iteration of the same pre- 
cepts.” He even goes farther back than Moses for the first elements of 
the ancient Covenant. He traces the development of this dispensation in 
Paradise and among the Patriarchs, apart from the ceremonial observan- 

ces of the Jewish ritual. Abel, Enoch, Melchisedec, and 

Lot, were accepted by that God, “ who, according to the 
circumstances of the times, reshapes (reformantem) the precepts of His 
Law for the salyation of men” (1. salutem). 


1. TERTULLIAN. 


Apol. 18. 


de Anima, 2. 
Apol. 31. 


Apol. 39. 


The unity of all 
Scripture. 

adv. Marc. x. 2. 

c. Gnost. 2. 

id. 


adv. Jud.c. 2. 


1 By Maréchal, Concordantia Patrum, 
I. p. 162; a work which is admirably 
executed, and is well worthy of the 
Benedictine fame. 

2 Tertullian is the first writer, I be- 
lieve, who uses the word ‘ Testament: 


um ”’in its ordinary acceptation, though 
it seems to have been current before his 
time. [Marcion] duos deos dividens pro- 
inde diversos, alterum alterius Jnstru- 
menti vel (quod magis usui est dicere) 
Testamenti ... adv. Mare. tv. 1. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


421 


Thus Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, are placed by Tertullian in 


one rank as God’s ministering servants. Christ spoke by 
Moses, ‘‘ for He was the Spirit, of the Creator;”...and 
“the prophecies are the voice of the Lord.” The madness 
(dementia) of those who deny that the Apostles knew all 
things,' or who admit that they knew all, but maintained 


Inspiration under 
the New Covenant. 

adv. Mare. vii. 16. 
Cf. de Orat. 9. de 
Cor. 9. 


that they did not reveal all things to all men, is equally reprehensible. The 


four Gospels, he tells us, are reared on the certain basis 
of Apostolical authority, and so are inspired in a far 
different sense from the writings of the spiritual Chris- 
tian. “ All the faithful, it is true, have the Spirit of God,? 
but all are not Apostles”.....“ The Apostles have the 
Holy Spirit in a peculiar sense; they have it in the works 
of prophecy, and in the operation of mighty powers (effi- 
cacia virtutum), and in the gift of tongues,® not as pos- 
sessing the influence in part as the rest.”. .. . .The revela- 
tion of the Apostles is the revelation of Christ; and 
“happy is that Churchy’— he is speaking of the Roman 


adv. Marc. iti. 6; 
tv. 13. 

de Resurr, Carn, 
22, 
de Prascr. Her. 
26. 

adv. Marc. iv. 2. 

εἴς exh. Castit. 4, 

id, 


de Prescr. Πα- 
ret. 21. 
id. 36. 


Church as it then was— “which combines the Law and the Prophets 
with the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, and draws her faith 


from them,”’.... 


This being the case, we might expect that Tertullian would reject that 


which is not proved by Scripture,* and bid such as tam- 
pered with the Sacred Volume, fear the woe destined for 
those who add to or take from it;” while ke himself 
“adores its fulness which reveals the Worker and the 
works ;” which admits of wide application, and univer- 
sal reference; for “all Scripture is fit for edification, 
being inspired by God.” Nay, more, he even thinks that 
“the Scriptures were so arranged by the will of God 


The peculiar au- 
thority of Scrip- 
ture. 

adv. Ilermog. 22. 

id. 

de hab. Mul. 3. 


de Prescr. 
Heer. 39. 


that they might afford materials for heretics, since it is written that here- 


5105 must be, which could not be without the Scriptures.” 


In his Principles of Interpretation Tertullian exhibits an equal sense 


of the truthfulness and depth of the Bible. ‘ The lan- 
guage of the Prophets,” he says, when arguing from their 
language on the Resurrection, “is generally allegoric 
and figurative, but not always; ... many of their words 


The Interpreta- 
tion of Scripture. 
de Resurr, Carn. 


can be maintained in a naked and simple sense.? But, nevertheless, in 


1In reference to Gal. ii. 11, he re- 
marks rightly: Conversationis fuit vi- 
tium non predicationis. De Prescr. 
Her. 22. 

2 This doctrine was part of the 
‘Regula Fidei” (de Prescr. Her. 18): 
(Profiteamur Jesum Christum] misisse 
vicariam vim Spiritus Sancti qui cre- 
dentes agat. 


ὃ Documento linguarum, as a friend 
suggests to me for documentorum lin- 
guam. 

4 Cf. de Monog. 4. Negat Scriptura 
quod non notat; and de Cor. Ail. 2. 
Prohibetur quod non ultro est permis- 
sum. 

ὃ Τὴ all such cases Tertullian seems 
inclined to destroy the primary histor- 


36 


422 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


other places' he admits the mystical import even of numbers, and 
traces a symbolism of the Apostolic twelve in the 
adv. Marc. iv.13. twelve fountains of Elim, the twelve gems of the high- 
de Bapt. 5. priest’s robe, and the twelve sfones selected by Joshua 
from the Jordan. He finds a figure of Holy Baptism 
in the pool of Bethesda,— though this was effective only once a 
year, but that is so always; and though that wrought (operabatur) 
temporal health, while this renews (reformat) cternal vigor. The 
same Sacrament was still more clearly foreshown in 
the passage of the Red Sea; and as ‘‘after the flood, 
—the Baptism of the World, so to speak, —by which 
the ancient sins of man were cleared away, the dove first brought the 
olive-branch of peace, so, when we rise from the Baptismal font, the 
Dove, —the Holy Spirit, — flies to us, sent forth from heaven, where the 
Church is the antitype of the ark.” 
At the same time Tertullian urges us to employ “the rudder of inter- 
pretation, ....for no divine utterance is so unconnected, 


de Bapt. 9. 
de Bapt. 8. 


Swhject to the 


; ‘ that the words only can be maintained, and not their 
Church. δ 
ἜΣ τὰ general bearing (ratio) ;” for we must adhere “to the 
"CESCr. cer, 
Si pase rule of the Church ἀδϊα Ecclesie), which she received 


from the Apostles, and the Apostles from Christ, and 

de Prescr. Heer, 2 7) 3 
19. Christ from God;”... while we may be assured, that 
“where there is seen to be truth of discipline and Chris- 
tian faith, there will there be the truth of the Scriptures, and of interpre- 

See and of all traditions.” ? 

2. Cyprian’s doctrine of Inspiration is scarcely less exact, though less 
Mg Rel δε του express. He more frequently shows his sense of the 
Testim. i. Pref value of the “divine Scriptures” by quoting their testi- 
ac monies,® than by fixing their authority. The books of 
the Old and New Testaments are to him “ the fountains of divine fulness 


ical fulfilment of the prophecy, regard- tellige ... (adv. Marc. 11. 12). Cf. 
ing the employment of the tenses as Just. M. Dial. § 77 
arbitrary, since “ with the Deity there See other examples adv. Mave. 111. 18. 
is no difference of time, for with Him 2 Cf. Bp. Kaye’s Essay on Tertullian, 
eternity itself brings all time to the pp. 290-804; and especially p. 297, n 
same uniform relation” (dirigit uni- (ed. 2), for the idea of primitive “ Tra- 
Jormem statum temporum) (adv. Mare. dition” in relation to the doctrine of 
1.5). ‘Eternity hath no divisions of the English Church. This tradition 
time” (non habet tempus cternitas) was merely hermeneutic, and not an 
(adv. Marc. 1. 8). Pantenus, Nova- independent source of doctrine. 
tian, and Irenzus, seem to have held 8 Cyprian composed three books of 
the seme doctrine. “Testimonies,” containing a selection 
1 Compare his explanation of Isa. vii. of texts from Scripture, arranged for 
Non solum sonum nominis spectes sed doctrinal purposes, at the request of a 
et sensum ... nobiscum Deus;.. . friend. 
spolia autem Samariz ipsos magos; ... The quotations from Cyprian’s corre- 
regem autem Assyriorum Hercdem in-  spondents’are giyen in brackets. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 423 


from which the Christian must draw strength and wisdom ;” the source 
of those “divine commands (magisteria) by which God has vouchsafed 
to train and instruct us, that, enlightened by his pure and 
bright radiance, we may hold the way of life through 
their saving mysteries” (sacramenta). They are “the foundation of our 
hope, the bulwark of our faith, the support of our hearts, the guide of 
our path, the safeguard of our salvation.” In the Scrip- a etre 
tures the Christian must find “the torch which shall 5; POUR gene 
kindie his faith” in the hour of danger; “ the arms with Ep. litt. (56) 73 
which he shall face the terrors of persecution and the  ¢f £p. vi. (81) 2. 
coming of Antichrist; and “the trumpet which shall [Ep. xaxi. (26) 
rouse him to the battle.” When writing to future mar- 5] 
tyrs, Cyprian says, “that his poor skill, aided by divine ae uae 
inspiration,' shall bring forth armor for them from the aig 
precepts of the Lord.” .. . “I know,” he adds, “ that the oe 
intricacies of human speech must be removed, and only those things set 
down which God says, and by which Christ exhorts His servants to mar- 
tyrdom.” We read in his writings, again and again, that the Holy Spirit 
spake in the Law and in the Gospel,—by Prophets, 
Apostles, and Evangelists. “By Him the Prophets 
were quickened to a knowledge of the future.” By Him 
the Apostles teach us, “ what they learnt from the pre- 
cepts of the Lord and heavenly revelations” (calestibus 
mandatis), being “full of the grace of the inspiration of their Master” 
(dominiccee inspirationis). By Him, too, according to the promise, the 
Christian answers his accusers in the hour of death; 
“for we do not speak, but the Spirit of the Father, 
who departeth, not from His confessors, and Himself speaketh in us, 
and shareth our crown.” And thus it is that the Power of God lives 
in the Church, “which, like Paradise, includes within 
her walls all fruit-bearing trees, which she waters with 
four rivers, even the four Gospels, and on which she pours, with a 
heavenly stream, the grace of a saving baptism.” 2 

Yet more; the teaching of Scripture — whether by History or Proph- 
ecy, by Laws or Psalms —is full of deep meaning, and 
its spiritual import is perfect, —‘‘the Gospel cannot 
stand in part and fall in part,” — nor is it limited in its 
application like the doctrine of men; so that Cyprian describes a selection 


de Orat. Dom. t. 


de Lapsis, 7. 

Ep. Wwiii. (56) 5, 6. 
Dp. wii. 3. 

de Op. et Eleem. 9. 


Ep. Witi. (56) 5. 


Ep. laxiii. 10. 


Cf. Ep. τοῖα. (76). 
de Lapsis, 20, 


11 am not sure that Maréchal is a distinction between the writings of 
right in referring these words to the the Bible: ‘‘ Much hath God chosen to 
Holy Scriptures. Cf. 2p. -xxin.s.f. be spoken and heard through His 
Libellum ‘‘de bono patientiz” quan- Prophets; yet how much greater are 
tum valuit nostra mediocritas permit- those words which the Son of God 
tente Domino et inspirante conscripsi- speaketh—which the Word of God, 
mus. who was in the Prophets, testifieth by 

2 In one place Cyprian seems todraw [115 own voice.*?— De Orat. Dom. § 1. 


494 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


of texts which he made under a remarkable similitude: “they are,” he 
says, “as the very wool and purple from the Lamb by 


de Exhort. Mart. 
Pref. 3. 


whom we are redeemed and quickened, of which each 


may make for himself a robe, .... that, having covered 
their former nakedness, all may wear the dress of Christ, arrayed in the 


sanctification of heavenly grace.” 


Among the types which Cyprian 


quotes, we find the Church prefigured by “the robe 


de Unit. Eccles.7. 
Ep.lxix. (76) 2,4. 
Ep. lwiv. (59) 3. 
Ep. laxiii. 4, 6. 


without seam,” by the ark, and by Rahab. 
spiritual meaning in the account of the raising of the 
Shunammite’s son, from which he deduces the propriety 
of Infant Baptism; and discovers a symbol of the Eu- 


He sees a 


charist in the “bread and wine,” which Melchisedec 


offered to Abraham, and, again, in the blessing of Judah. 


He recognizes 


alike the authority and the mystery of Scripture; and declares the peculiar 
and lasting functions of the Spirit in the Church and in the Christian. 
3. Lastly, the sentiments of Cyprian were shared by the other bishops 


of the African Church of his time. 
the Council of Carthage, on the rebaptization of heretics, 


ConciL. CArR- 


THAG. 


In the account of 


we find that many of those present based their judg- 
ments expressly on the authority of Scripture, using such language? as 
shows most clearly the feelings with which they regarded it ὃ 


SECT. 


VI.— THE FATHERS OF ALEXANDRIA. 


᾿Αλεξανδρεὺς τῷ γένει, ἀνὴρ λόγιος, δυνατὸς dy ἐν ταῖς ypapais. —ACTS 
XVIII. 24. 


The designs of the Macedonian conquerer in founding Alexandria 


were more than fulfilled. 


He wished to unite in that city the East 


and West by the bonds of commerce and the intercourse of daily business ; 


1 In connection with Cyprian we may 
quote the following passage from Fir- 
milan (Bp. of Caserea in Cappadocia): 
“ The Divine Word surpasses the nature 
of man, nor can the soul form a perfect 
and entire conception of it, and there- 
fore there is so great a number of 
Prophets, that the manifoldness of Di- 
vine wisdom may be distributed among 
many. Whence also [at a later time] 
the first is ordered to keep silence in 
prophesying, if a revelation shall have 
been made to a second” ({Cypr.] Ep. 
LXXv. 4). It would be impossible to 
find a more distinet recognition of the 
separate purposes of the sacred writers 


2 E. g., “Scripture Sancte” (5, 6, 
74); ““ Scripture deitice (8); ‘* Hare- 
ticos — decerpentes sancta et admira- 
bilia Scripturarum yerba execrandos 
censeo”... (81); “ Divine Scripture” 
(33). 

8 The very remarkable poem of Com- 
modian — one of the most interesting 
specimens of rude Latin now remain- 
ing — offers the same kind of mystical 
interpretations as Tertullian and Cyp- 
rian. For instance, addressing a Jew, 
he says (§ 39): “Inspice Liam typum 
Synagoger,” etc. So again he says: 
“In te Apostolus clamat, immo Deus 
per illum” (§ 58). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 420 


and it proved the point of their religious contact, and the centre of a 
new spiritual life. The faith of Palestine and the reason 
of Greece existed there side by side, till they were pre- 
pared to received the principle of a combined vitality in 
the preaching of Christianity. The colony of Jews at Alexandria, — 
“the glory of Israel,” as they were called,— adopted the language, and 
learnt the doctrines of Greek Philosophy; they recognized the element of 
good which it contained,! and, doubtless, if they did not teach, at least in 
turn suggested fresh thoughts to its masters. The Jew- 
ish Rabbi became an instructor of the Augyptian king, 
and ‘‘the entire interpretation of all the books of the Law (τῶν διὰ τοῦ 
νόμου πάντων) was completed under the prince surnamed Philadelphus.” 
We may believe that the later writers of this school lost sight of the stern 
realities of Jewish history, and, in anticipation of a wider future, forgot 
the meaning of the past; yet, even Philo professed only 

to follow the principles and patterns of men of old time, Ae iene 
who interpreted allegorically the philosophy of their 

fathers (τὴν πάτριον φιλοσοφίαν ἀλληγοροῦντες) ; and the writings of the 
Apocrypha exhibit unequivocal marks of the same view 
of Scripture. However this may be, it cannot be denied 
that the views of the allegoric school were first accepted and then syste- 
matized by the Christian fathers, and we shall endeavor to show in what 
way the unscientific criticism of Clement, which was based on the mere 
feeling of the depth of the sacred writings, was reduced to symmetry and 
order by Origen, whose views of inspiration, with all the faults of his 
Eastern ardor, are perhaps the noblest and worthiest which have ever 
beeen set forth. 

1. Clement’s doctrine of the plenary Inspiration of Scripture is at once 
rigid in its primary form and wide in its general applica-—g ews Arex. 
tion. He recognizes the working of Providence in the Str. vi. 8, § 64. 
moral teaching of Greeks and Barbarians, and traces — S# 765, 8 #2. 
the origin of Pagan philosophy to the same God (6 τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς 
φιλοσοφίας δοτὴρ τοῖς “EAAnot) who was the Author of the Mosaic and 
Christian covenants, and compares the Jewish prophets with those among 
the heathen ‘‘ whom He raised up as prophets in their own dialect, and 
separated from common (xvdaiwy) men, as they were 
able to receive the Divine favor ;”” while in another place Str. vi. 8, § 67. 
he does not hesitate to call philosophy “a peculiar cove- 0" ὅδ: #9, $28. 
nant (οἷον διαδήκην oicefav) given to the Greeks on Peed. i. xi. § 90. 
which might be built the philosophy of Christ.” ? But it Protr. i. § 5, 
was by “the masters of Israel’? that God led men prop- 
erly to the Messiah, speaking to them in the Law,? the Psalms,‘ and the 


The Alexandrine 
School. 


2 Mace. i. 10. 


Strac. xxiv. 23-9, 


1 Olshausen, Zin Wort wu. 8. w. δὲ 18, § 128), as well as that of the Shepherd 
19. of Hermas (§ 121). 

2 In illustration Clement quotes the 
Κήρυγμα Πέτρου. He asserts explicitly 
the inspiration of this work (St. v1.15, 4 Ped. τι. 10,§ 110. Ὁ λόγος τοῦτο 

36* 


3 Str. 11. 23, § 146. 


426 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


Prophets ;! for, “disregarding the lifeless instruments, —lyre and harp, 
—the Word of God reduced to harmony by the Holy Spirit not only this 
world, but man the microcosm, both body and soul, and so makes melody 
to God through that many-voiced instrument, and says to man: Thou 
art my harp, my flute, my temple: my harp, from the harmony [of many 
notes],—my flute, from the Spirit that breatheth through thee, — my 
temple, from the Word that dwelleth in thee.”. . .“« Truly 
of man the Lord wrought a glorious living instrument 
after the fashion of His own image; one which might give every harmony 
of God tuneful and holy” (ὄργανον Θεοῦ παναρμόνιον, ἐμμελὲς καὶ ἅγιον, 
σοφία ὑπερκόσμιος, οὐράνιος λόγος). Thus the foundations of our faith 
rest on no insecure basis, ‘for we have received them 
from God through the Scriptures,” ... “of which (ὧν 
γραφῶν) not one tittle shall pass away without being 
accomplished ; for the mouth of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, spoke it’ 
(ἐλάλησε ταῦτα); “and we have believed on Him 
through His voice; and he that believeth on the Word, 
knoweth that the thing is true, for the Word is truth; but he that believ- 
eth not on him that speaketh, disbelieveth God :” for 
he disbelieveth ‘‘that which hath been spoken by the 
Holy Spirit for our salvation” (τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ aylov πνεύματος σωτηρίως 
εἰρημένα). 
The Gospel dispensation is still more glorious than the Law: “the 
Prophets were perfect in prophecy, the just perfect in 
tee New Testa- yichteousness,.... - but the Apostles were fulfilled 
Str.iv. 21, 8155. (πεπληρωμένοι) in all things.” Yet “there is no discord 
-. ii. 23, $146, between the Law and the Gospel, but harmony, for they 
both proceed from the same Author” (ἑνὸς ὄντος ἀμφοῖν 
χορηγοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου), “ differing in name and time to 
suit the age and culture of their hearers (kad ἡλικίαν καὶ προκοπὴν οἰκονο- 
μικῶς δεδομέναι), by a wise economy, but one potentially (Suvduer),” since 
“the faith in Christ and the knowledge (γνῶσις) of the 
Gospel is the explanation (ἐξήγησι5) and fulfilment of 
the Law.”? In all the Scriptures, — “in the Law, in the Prophets, and 
in the blessed Gospel,’”— ‘which are ratified by the 
authority of Almighty power,’ —‘‘xupias οὔσας ἐξ 
αὐδεντείας παντοκρατοριικῆ5) we “have the Lord as the 
spring of our teaching, who, by the various ministrations of His servants, 
in sundry times and in divers manners from beginning to end guides the 
course of knowledge.” 
Clement is not inclined to undervalue human learning, yet he adds that 


Protr.i. § 5. 


Str. ti. 4, § 12. 
Protr. ix. ὃ 82. 


Str. ii. 4, § 12. 


Str. vi. 15, § 126. 


Str 
Str. ii. 6, § 29. 


Str. iv. 21, § 136. 


Str. iv. 1, § 2. 
Str. vii. 16, § 95. 


ψάλλει διὰ Δαβὶδ περὶ τοῦ κυρίον προφήτης... μᾶλλονε δὲ ἐν Ἵερ. τὸ 
λέγων (Ps. xly. 8 54.). ἅγιον πνεῦμα ἐπιδείκνυσι τὸν SeEdv. 

2 Cf. Str. vit. 16, § 108; Adwmbr. in 

1 Protrept. Vut. § 78. Ἱερεμίας δὲ ὁ Petri Ep. τὰ, 1.12; δωάαφ. ται. 12, § 94. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 427 


“the reading of the Scriptures of the Lord is necessary for the demon- 
stration of what the Christian teacher brings forward ;” 

and as they are the basis of our spiritual knowledge so Satori to Gee 
are they also the means of quickening our spiritual vision. Str. vi. 11, 8 91. 
“The Christian training exercises our mind and awak- ΤΡ δ 
ens our intelligence, begetting in us an inquiring and oe 
sagacious spirit (ἀγχίνοιαν ζητητικήν), through that true philosophy which 
we have found, or rather received from Him who is the Truth (ἥν... Ὁ. 
παρ᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληϑείας ἔχουσιν of μύσται). We may have fallen from 
our original glory, yet Clement bids those “‘ whose men- 
tal eye has been dulled by evil rearing and instruction 
to come to their proper light, seeking the truth which sets forth that 
which is unwritten in writing” (ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήϑειαν τὴν ἐγγράφως τὰ ἄγραφα 
δηλοῦσαν) ; and to come with humility, for “some patch 
together divers fabrications and falsehoods that they may 
seem to reject the Scriptures, — that is, the Holy Spirit, — with a show of 
reason ;”? —with patience, for some “have refused to 
admit them after a superficial perusal, having lacked the 
zeal to penetrate the depth of their meaning ;”’—and with obedience, 
“for he ceases to be a man (ϑήριον γένοιτο), So to speak, 
who spurns the tradition of the Church, and lightly 
turns aside (ἀποσκιρτήσας,ἴο the opinions of human heresies.” And then 
he says, quoting the words of St. Paul (2 Tim. iii. 15), “the Scriptures 
are truly holy, for they are writings which make us holy 
and make us godlike (τὰ ἱεροποιοῦντα καὶ δεοποιοῦντα 
γράμματα) ; and of these holy writings and words the Bible is composed, 
which the same Apostle calls inspired by God, being useful for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 

The method of Interpretation adopted by the Alexandrine Fathers 
serves to place their view of Inspiration in the clearest 
light; for it was not to them, as it might seem now, a 
mere exercise of ingenuity, but an earnest search after a wider and more 
certain knowledge (γνῶσις). Clement maintains the existence of an 
allegoric meaning throughout the whole of the Bible, 
whose deeper mysteries are only seen “by the light 
which dawns on those who are truly initiated in knowl- 
edge, and seck the truth in love. ‘‘ Moses,” he tells us, Τῆς ea § 167; 
“ was a living law guided by the gracious Word” (νύμος — ¢f- $169. 
ἔμψυχος τῷ χρηστῷ λόγῷ κυβερνώμενος), so that his writ- some ub Se 
ings are still full of instruction, though their literal ac- 
ceptation has passed away.! The details of patriarchal history,’ and the 


St. 1.1, § 10. 


Str. vit. 16, § 99. 


Str. vii. 16, § 98, 


Str. vit. 16, § 95. 


Protr. ix. § 87. 


Interpretation, 


Str. vi. 15, § 129. 


1 Cf. Str. 11. 15, § 67. The Ten Com- 2 For instance, he explains the his- 
mandments haye a philosophic as well tory of Abraham in thie following way, 
as a natural sense;—‘Eyen the two apparently after Philo: Divine Wis- 
tables may be a prophecy of the two dom (Sarah) brings no fruit at first to 
Covenants.” Sti. VI. 16, §§ 183 sqq. the believer (Abraham), and so, while 


428 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


proportions of the Jewish Tabernacle,' are significant to the Christian 
philosopher {γνωστικό5). Even the admission of Psalms into the Sacred 
Canon suggests the idea “of the harmony of the Law 
and the Prophets, of the Gospel and the Apostles, in 
the Church, and of that under-current of melody which flows on through 
all the changes of persons” (τήν τε ὑποβεβηκυῖαν τὴν KaY ἔκαστον προ- 
φήτην κατὰ τὰς μεταπηδήσεις τῶν προσώπων συνῳδίαν). But ‘it would 
be a long task to go through all the details of the Law and 
the Prophets which are expressed in riddles, for almost 
the whole of Scripture speaks to us in this oracular language,” yet most 
deeply and fully in the books of the new Covenant. 

“The Saviour teaches His disciples nothing after a merely human 
fashion, but all things bya Divine and mystic wisdom ;... 
for even those things which seem to have been expressed 
simply, still are found to require as much attention, nay, 
even more than what was spoken enigmatically, on account of the exceed- 
ing excess of meaning in them.” His works? and words? alike convey 
ever-new lessons to those who search for them: hence it is necessary in 
reading Scripture to regard the general scope and the particular phrase, 


Sir. vt. 11, 88. 


Str. v. 6, § 32. 


The Gospel. 
de div. Sulv. § 5. 


for “the careful distinction of words and facts produces 


Str. vi. 10, § 82. 


great light in our souls, and we must needs listen atten- 


tively to those single expressions which convey many significations, and to 


the single signification of many words together.” 


Thus, by the continual 


advances of Faith, we gain the mystical sense* of the Bible, while “the 
unwritten tradition of the written Word,® given by the 


Str. vi. 15, § 131; 
cf. § 13. 


Saviour Himself to the Apostles, is handed down eyen 


to us, being inscribed on new hearts according to the 
renewing of the Book by the power of God” (κατὰ τὴν ἀνακαίνωσιν τοῦ 


βιβλίου). 


he is still vigorous, he is induced to 
apply himself to worldly learning (the 
Egyptian Hagar), but afterwards she 
gives birth toa spontaneous truth (7d 
avtouadés, Isaac). Str. τ. δ, §§ 80, 31. 

1 He gives a detailed explanation of 
the symbolism of the Tabernacle: Str. 
v. 6, 82 sqq. Thus the hangings which 
covered it indicated that its mysteries 
were veiled; the curtain over the jive 
pillars (the five senses) represented the 
separation between the worlds of sense 
and reason; while the jour pillars 
which divided the Holy of Holies from 
the Sanctuary, signified the four Cove- 
nants and the sacred Name of God. 

2 Cf. Str. vr. 11, § 94. 

8 Cf. Str. Iv. 4, § 15. 


4 Cf. fr. 66. 6 σωτὴρ τοὺς ἀποστό- 
λους ἐδίδασκεν τὰ μὲν πρῶτα τυπικῶς 
καὶ μυστικῶς, τὰ δὲ ὕστερα παραβολι- 
κῶς καὶ ἠνιγμένως, τὰ δὲ τρίτα σαφῶς 
καὶ γυμνῶς καταμόνας. Generally (Cf. 
Str. vi. 15, § 192) Clement only notices 
two senses of Scripture: in Str. 1. 28, 
§ 179, he appears to consider three. 

It is a natural tradition which repre- 
sents James and John and Peter as im- 
mediately instructed by our Lord after 
his Resurrection, and the others 
through them. Clem. Alex. ap. Euseb. 
H. £.11.1,8; ef. Str. vi. 8, § 68. 

5 Cf. Str. vit. 17, § 106. This was the 
key (κλείς) of the true believer, while 
the misbeliever has a false key (ἄντι- 
κλείς). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 429 


This inner teaching Clement regards as useful for our moral training, 
and necessary from the nature and aim of Revelation. The ide of ia 
“The Scriptures conceal their meaning (ἐπικρύπτονται — hidden meaning of 
τὸν νοῦν) that we may be led to inquire from the com- — Serwture. 
mencement of our course, and be ever vigilant in the Pee aes aa 
investigation of the words of salvation; ”’... “their character is figurative 
(παραβολικός), because the Lord, though He was not of the world (κοσμι- 
κός), came to men as if He were of the world, endued with every [human] 
virtue, and purposed to lead man — the foster-brother of the world — by 
the way of knowledge to pursue the intelligible and absolute, rising from 
a lower to a higher sphere” (ἔμελλεν τὸν σύντροφον τοῦ 
κόσμου ἄνϑδρωπον ἐπὶ τὰ νοητὰ καὶ κύρια δία τῆς γνώσεως 
ἀνάγειν ἐκ κόσμου εἰς κόσμον). Consequently “there are difficulties in the 
Bible, yet all things, we read (Prov. viii. 9), are plain to those who under- 
stand, that is, to all who receive and ever preserve the interpretation of the 
Scriptures, which has been made clear by Christ, according to the rule of 
the Church (ἐκκλεσιαστικὸς κανών), which consists in the perfect combina- 
tion of all the notes and harmonies (συνῳδία καὶ συμφονία) of the Law and 
the Prophets with the Testament! delivered at the presence of the Lord.” 

2. Hitherto we have collected the scattered hints and implied assump- 
tions of the plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures which 
are found in the works of the early Fathers of the Church ; 
we have still a more difficult task before us in the examination of the 
direct arguments and definite conclusions of the great teacher of Alexan- 
dria — of him whose proper name is said to mean the “Son of Light,” 
and whose labors earned for him the title of ‘ Adamantine.” The for- 
tunes of Origen during his lifetime aptly prefigured the fate of his writ- 
ings. His zeal was accounted infatuation, and his learning turned to a 
reproach. Though he was known to have reclaimed the wandering, and 
to have refuted the malicious, yet he was driven from the service of the 
Church in the very city where he had preached Christ on the steps of the 
Temple of Serapis, and strengthened his father to endure the terrors of 
martyrdom. Though “countless doctors, priests, and confessors”’ pro- 
ceeded from his school, he was himself arraigned as a heretic and con- 
victed ; though he was the friend and teacher of saints,” his salvation was 
questioned and denied. For many centuries he was condemned almost 
universally by the Western Church, in consequence of the adverse judg- 
ment of Jerome. In later times Picus of Mirandola® ventured to main- 
tain the cause of the great Father; the thesis was suppressed, but the 


Str. vi. § 125. 


2. ORIGEN. 


1 Διαϑδήκη. Cf. de Div. Serv. § 8; passages from Origen’s writings on 
Greg. Nyss. ap. Suicer. 8. V. ἢ ϑεό- Holy Scripture, ete., which bears the 
mvevoTos διαδϑήκη. title of Philocalia. Huet, Origeniana, 

1. 4, 10, gives a list of the pupils of 
2Gregory Thaumaturgus and Basil Origen. 
compiled the admirable selection of 3 Huet, Origeniana, τι. 4, 3, 19. 


430 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


author remained uncensured ; indeed, a pious lady was said to have re- 
ceived a revelation not long before, which seemed to assure her of the 
forgiveness of Samson, Solomon, and Origen. This hope, however, in 
the case of the last, was admitted apparently by few: and Baronius' ex- 
presses his surprise that any doubt of his condemnation could be raised 
after the sentence of Anastasius. 

It is not our object now to enter at all into the general opinions and 
character of Origen: it will be enough for us to listen to his own words 
about Holy Scripture, and if we find in them a deep and solid foundation 
of truth constructed with earnestness and wisdom, — unaptly crowned, it 
may be, with the fantastic structures of a warm and hasty imagination, — 
it is possible that we may be led to regard his other labors with charity, if 
not with gratitude, and to remember that his errors refer to questions 
which had not in his time been decided by the authority of the Church. 

The work “on Principles” (περὶ ἀρχῶν) which supplied the enemies of 
Origen with the richest store of objections, contains also 
the most complete view of his Theory of Inspiration. 
At the commencement of the first book he assumes the 
doctrine as acknowledged by all Christians, and in the last he supports it 
by a profound and independent proof, which in later times suggested the 
“Analogy ” of Butler. “Truly,” he says, “it is most 
evidently preached in the Churches that the Holy Spirit 
inspired each of the Saints, Prophets, and Apostles, and 
that the same Spirit was present in those of old time as in those who were 
inspired at the coming of Christ;” for ‘‘ Christ, the Word of God, was 
in Moses and the Prophets,...and by His Spirit they 
spake and did all things.” By the help of this illumi- 
nating Power the ministers of truth explained the hidden mysteries in 
the life and actions of man; unfolded the workings of God’s Providence 
in Creation and Redemption ; and, at the same time, edified the simple 
and unlearned by instructive narratives. The true God acted on the 
prophets to enlighten and strengthen them, and not to 
cloud or confuse their natural powers, like the Pythian 
Deity, who was akin to those daemons which Christians are wont to drive 
out by prayers and- adjurations ; for the divine messengers “by the con- 
tact of the Holy Spirit with their soul (διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῶν ἁφῆς 
τοῦ καλουμένου ἁγίον πνεύματος), so to speak, gained a keener and a 
clearer intuition of spiritual truth” (διορατικώτεροι τὸν νοῦν [Eth. Nic. 
vi. 6] καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν λαμπρότεροι) ; and they thus became more perfect 
men as well as wiser seers. 

The details of the Cosmogony and the records of the chosen people 

were, in Origen’s judgment, as truly written by the in- 
ce ati pee one spiration of Diyine Wisdom as the works of the Proph- 
Fine. ets. He assumes that “the records of the Gospels are 
oracles of the Lord, pure oracles as silver purificd seven 
times in the fire” (Ps. xii. 6), and that there is a meaning in their minutest 


General view of 
Inspiration. 


de Prine. t. 


Praf. 4. 


id.i.1, wd. iv. 15, 


6. Cels. vii. 4. 


1 Huet, Origeniana, τι. 4, 8, 21. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 4381 
details; while they are without error, inasmuch as we believe “that they 
were accurately written by the cooperation of the Holy 
Spirit”. ...The opening words of St. Luke’s Gospel 
seem to him to proye and illustrate this doctrine of Inspira- 


de Princ, iv. 14. 
In the Gospels. 


Σ ἐ ; ἢ in Matt. Tom. 
tion: they ‘‘ attempted ” (ἐπεχείρησαν) to write histories αὖ. 8, 
who did so without the gift of God’s grace (χωρὶς χαρίσ- ἔξ ων τρις: 


ματος); our Evangelists did not “attempt” that which 
they did by the motion of the Holy Spirit (ἔγραψαν ἐξ ἁγίου 
κινούμενοι mvevparos),and their books only we receive on the authority of 
the Church of God. Yet more, Origen does not hesitate 
to say that the Christian receives the words of Paul as the 
words of God,! for he was made fit (ixaywSels) to be a minister of the 
new Coyenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit. They 
only, he elsewhere tells us, will find contradictions in the 
Apostle’s writings “who sever the one doctrine of the 
Faith into the diverse opinions of sects, and examine only those testimo- 
nies of Scripture which support their peculiar view, re- 
gardless of the full and perfect meaning of such pas- 
sages as exhibit the opposite side of the truth” (e diverso 
veniunt). But, again, he notices that St. Paul speaks some things in his 
own person which do not possess the same authority ; ὦ and he seems to 
consider that the inspiration of the Epistles generally is 
derived from the Gospels, for they are a Gospel in an- 
other form. Yet still they are not less pregnant in mean- 
ing than the other parts of Scripture, though to some 
they may seem more plain than the /istoric and prophetic books, but are 
full of the elements of the mightiest and most manifold thoughts. Such 
is the variety which we find in the Bible, yet all parts combine into one 
harmonious whole. “There are many sacred writings, 


Hom. i. in Lue, 


In the Epistles. 


Comm. in Joan, 
Tom. v. 3s 


Comm. in Rome 
Lib. iii. 1. 


Comm. in Joan. 
Tom. i. v. 


de Prine. iv. 10. 


yet there is but one Book: there are four Evangelists, (ρίαν δ) ΠῚ 
yet their histories form but one Gospel: ” they all con- ii. p. 0. ; 
spire to one end, and move by one way. All the sacred pea) Rage 

volumes “breathe the Spirit of fulness, and there is noth- gai, 9, : 


ing, whether in the Law or in the Prophets, in the Evan- 
gelists or in the Apostles (sive in Evangelio sivein Apostolo), which does 
not descend from the fulness of the Divine Majesty. Even at the present 


1 Cf, Hom. vit. in Levit. § 4. Mihi contents of the Epistles. For instance, 


autem sicut Deo et Domino nostro Jesu 
Christo ita et Apostolis ejus adherere 
bonum est, et ex divinis scripturis se- 
cundum ipsorum traditionem intelli- 
gentiam capere. 


2 His language at times seems incon- 
sistent, unless we observe this distinc- 
tion between the personal and general 


he says of the ‘* Epistle to Romans” 
(Pref. in Ep. ad Rom.): Videtur Apos- 
tolus in hac epistola perfectior fuisse 
quam in ceteris, quoting 1 Cor. ix. 27; 
Phil. iii. 10,18. Again: Scribunt Thes- 
salonicensibus in verbo Dei Paulus et 
Silvanus et Timotheus (Lib. 111 fr.). 
Cf. Hom. 11. in Ezech. 1.; Hom. XX1x, 
in Luc.; de Orat. τ. § 2. 


432 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


time the words of fulness speak in Holy Scripture to those who have eyes 
to see the mysteries of heaven, and ears to hear the voice of God.” 

We may call the Gospel “the first-fruits of the Scriptures,”’} or “ the 
elements of the Faith of the Church ;”’ we may believe 
that ‘‘ the divinity of the prophetic revelations, and the 
spiritual meaning ef the Law, shene forth by the dwell- 
ing of Jesus on earth,” and that there were no clear 
proofs of the inspiration (ϑεοπνεύστους) of the writings 
of the old Covenant before that time; yet the Christian —who has 
recognized in his own Faith the fulfilment of Prophecy, and received the 
substance which the Law shadowed — will prize equally 
all “the words of God.” ‘We cannot say of the wri- 
tings of the Holy Spirit (Spiritus Sancte littere) that 
anything in them is otiose or superfluous, even if they seem to some ob- 
scure.”” We cannot believe that there is “one jot or 
tittle written in the Scriptures which does not work its 


All Scripture 
alike instructive. 

Comm. in Joan. 
Zom. i. 6. 

de Prine. iv. 6. 


Hom. in Num. 
eaxvit. 1. 


Hom. rxxia, in 
Jerem. 


Τῆς own work, when men know how to employ it.” The 
(Philoc. 10.) 5 aN ᾿ 2) s 
fault is our own if “the rock of stumbling” remain, 


for we shall indeed “ find connection (οὐδὲν παρέλκει) and use in all that 
has been written, if we give heed to our reading, and pass over no letter 
without examination and inquiry.” As in the natural world the skill of 
the Creator is not only seen in the stars of heaven, but in the organiza- 
tion and life ef the meanest insect, and in the structure 
of the smallest plant, ‘so too we conceive of all that has 
been recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost 
(τὰ ἐξ ἐπιπνοίας τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος ἀναγεγραμμένα), believing that the 
divine (ἱερᾶς) foreknowledge, which supplies superhuman wisdom to the 
race of man by the Scriptures (διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων), has placed, so to 
speak, the seeds of saving truths in each letter as far as possible; . . . at 
least whoever has once received these Scriptures as inspired by the Crea- 
tor of the world, must expect to find in them all the difficulties which 
meet those who investigate the system of the universe.” 

Origen rests his proof of Inspiration on the influence of the Sacred 
books, and the fulfilment of prophecy. Other legislators 
besides Moses, and other teachers besides Christ, he tells 
us, framed laws and systems which they would gladly 
have propagated through the world, but the Jewish? and Christian Creeds 
alone have spread successfully, in spite of national prejudices and religi- 
ous persecution. Moreover, he adds, the rapidity with which Christian- 


Comm. in Ps. ὃ, 4. 
(Philoc. 2.) 


The proof of Tr- 
spiration. 
de Princ, iv. 1, 


1 Comm. in Joan.1.4. χρὴν δ᾽ ἡμᾶς 
εἰδέναι ob ταὐτὸν εἶναι ἀπαρχὴν καὶ 
πρωτογέννημα. Μετὰ γὰρ τοὺς 
πάντας καρποὺς ἀναφέρεται ἣ ἀπαρχή, 
πρὸ δὲ πάντων τὸ πρωτογέννημα. 


2 De Princip. tv. 1 1. Πᾶσα δὲ ‘EA- 


Ads καὶ βάρβαρος 7 κατὰ τὴν oikov- 
μένην ἡμῶν (ζηλωτὰς ἔχει μυρίους, 
καταλιπόντας τοὺς πατρῴους νόμους 
καὶ νομιζομένους δεούς, τῆς τηρ΄ή- 
σεως τῶν Μωσέως νόμως, 
καὶ τῆς μαϑητείας τῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ 
λόγων. . . 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 435 


ity was promulgated proves the divine nature of the Christian word,! 
“which is preached in the whole world so that Greeks 
and Barbarians, wise and foolish, profess the doctrines of {6 Prime. ἐν, 2 
our Faith.” Again: the Law, the Psalms, and the Proph- de Pring igo 
ets, abound with predictions of the Advent and Reign of 
Christ, and foreshadow the desolation of Judah, and the assumption of 
the Gentile Church.? The fulfilment of these by the life of Jesus and the 
course of Christianity “has placed the Inspiration of the Scriptures beyond 
a doubt, and raised the veil from the face of Moses.” Such are the out- 
ward proofs for the unbeliever; the Christian, however, will rest his faith 
on the teaching of the Church. The Bible is the bulwark 
of the Church, and the Church is its guardian. That εν δος 
alone is to be believed as truth which accords with the 
apostolic ‘tradition? handed down in the preaching of the Church, by 
order of succession from the Apostles, and even now abiding in the 
Churches.” 

The objections which are urged against the doctrine of a plenary Inspi- 
ration Origen answers by analogies from Life, from 
Nature, and from Providence, as Ireneus,* in a more aes toe 
general way, had done before him. ‘The anthropomor- 
phic language of Scripture he compares with our own mode of addressing 
childven, suitably to their understanding, to secure their 
benefit, and not to exhibit our own capacity (Deut. i. 31) ; 
though still for the spiritual it has also a spiritual meaning contained in the 
simple words, if we know how to hearken to them. Again: we have 
already seen that outward insignificance is no ground for disparaging the 
marvellous beauty of the least being in the natural crea- am 
tion; and the same holds true in the Bible. And thirdly, See ee 
there are difficulties in the doctrine of Providence which 
we cannot yet solve, as, for instance, the existence of venomous animals, 
still we do not for this reason speak against the Author of nature, but 
wait, if haply we may be deemed worthy to know that about which we 
now reverently withhold our judgment ; and so too in the divine Scriptures 
are many things which we cannot explain, and yet dare not condemn; but 
“as the doctrine of God's Providence is not destroyed 
(χρεωκοπεῖται) by our ignorance on particular points when 
we have once rightly admitted it, so likewise the divinity of the Scriptures, 
which extends through them all, remains undisturbed, though our weak- 
ness cannot in each special phrase master the hidden glory of the truths 
concealed under simple and contemptible language.” ὃ 


ec. Cels. tv. ΤΊ. 


de Princ. tv. 7. 


1It is worth while remarking how 1,2; Ps. Ixxii. (Ixxi.) 7, 8; Isai. vii. 14; 
absolutely Origen identifies the Chris- viii. 9; Mic. vy. 2; Dan. ix. 24. 
tian Books and the Christian Doctrine. 8 Cf. p. 422, n. 2. 

2The following are the prophecies 4 Cf. p. 414. 
which he quotes: Gen. xlix. 10; Hos. 6 When defending the rude style of 
11. 4; Deut. xxxii 21; Ps. xly. (xliy.) the Scriptures upon the ground of their 


o°7 


od 


434 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


We have already scen that Origen represents the doctrine of the Inspi- 
ration of the Bible as taught by the universal Church; 
in like manner he tells us that her principles of Inter- 
pretation were fixed, though there were variations in 
private judgment from the earliest times. “It is a point 
in her teaching that the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and 
admit not only of the obvious meaning, but of another unperceived by 
many ;' for those details which are written are the forms of certain mys- 
teries and the images of divine things, and in this the 
opinion of the whole Church is one, that every part of 
the Law is spiritual.’’...“© The simplest acknowledge the presence of 


Interpretation. 
ec. Cels. iii. 11. 
de Princ. ἃ, 


Pref. 8. 


de Princ. iv. 9. 


“ρος ~ 
emlou sae 


ystic dispensations,? and the most sagacious (οἱ εὐγνώμονες καὶ 


ἄτυφοι) confess that they do not understand them.” 
The peculiar feature of Origen’s system of Interpretation is the main- 


A triple sense. 


tenance of a threefold sense in Scripture generally ; he 
finds indications of this principle in several passages of 


the Old Testament,? and maintains that as ‘‘ man consists of body, soul, 


de Prine. ww. 14. 
Hom. v. in Lev. 5. 
Hom.v.in Lev... 


popularity, Origen adds (ec. Cels. vi. 2): 
ἐστὶ γοῦν ἰδεῖν τὸν μὲν Πλάτωνα ἐν 
χερσὶ τῶν δοκούντων εἶναι φιλολόγων 
μόνον. τὸν δὲ ᾿Ἐπίκτητον καὶ ὑπὸ 
τῶν τυχόντων καὶ ῥοπὴν πρὸς τὸ ὠφε- 
λεῖσϑαι ἐχόντων δαυμαζόμενον, αἰσῶο- 
μένων τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν λόγων αὐτοῦ βελ- 
τιώσεως. Any national literature 
would furnish a parallel. 

1 This spiritual sense is granted by 
the Spirit to the Church. Hom. in Lev. 
Vv. 3. 

2The instances he quotes will best 
explain his meaning: Gen. Xix. 30-38; 
Gen. xvi.; Gen. xxix.; Gen. xxx. 

53 For instance, from the Mosaic his- 
tory he refers to the construction of 
the Ark (the Church) “ with lower, 
second, and third stories” (Hom. 11. in 
Gen. § 6); from the Law, to Levit. vii. 
9: Clibanus secundum sui formam pro- 
fundiora... significat . . . Sartago 


ea que si frequenter versentur .. . ex- 
plicari possunt. Craticula autem ea 
que palam sunt... (/om. v. in Lev. 


5), from the Proverbs, to Prov. xxii. 20, 
21(LXX.); and, again, from the Gos- 


and spirit, so too does Holy Scripture, which has been 
granted by God for the salvation of man;” 4 and thus 
the simple may be edified by the body (σῶμα), the more 
advanced by the soul (ψυχή), and the perfect by the spirit (πνεῦμα). 


Cor- 


pel, to the three loaves in the parable, 
Luke xi. 5, 6 (Hom. v. in Levit. § 5). 

4 The threefold character of man’s 
being, and its entire (ὁλόκληρος) con- 
secration to God’s service by Christian- 
ity,is clearly expressed in 1 Thess. v, 
23. It is important to distinguish ac- 
curately between the principle of nat- 
ural —intellectual—life (ψυχή), and 
that of spiritual — religious life (πνεῦ- 
μα). Divine revelation (6 λόγος τοῦ 
Θεοῦ) sometimes by its mysteries leaves 
the one unsupported by the other (ue- 
ρισμὸς ψυχῆς τε Kal πνεύματος. Heb. 
iv. 12). Cf I Cor: xv. 45; Phil: 1. 27; 
Luke i. 47. Hence it is that Ψυχή and 
σάρξ are never contrasted. 

Those who gladly trace the earlier 
anticipations of truth will recognize 
this triple division in Plato, esp. tv. pp. 
441 sqq., where he distinguishes the ap- 
petitive (τὸ ἐπιϑυμητικόν ---- σάρξ), the 
emotional (τὸ ϑυμοειδές ---- ψυχή). and 
the rational (τὸ λογιστικόν — πνεῦ- 
pa) elements in a man and astate; and 
also in Aristotle’s definition of a triple 
“essence? (οὐσία) --- material (ὕλη); 


ON ἹΠῈ PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 435 
responding to these three parts are three methods of Interpretation — the 
historical, the moral, and the mystical; and properly “the body” was 
for those who were before us, “the soul” for us, and “the spirit” for those 
“who shall receive the inheritance of eternal life, by which indeed they 
may reach the heavenly kingdoms.” 

The utility of the literal sense of Scripture “is proved by the multitudes 
of those who believe sincerely and simply ;”? and the 


reality of the moral meaning is shown by the example rane esis ες 
Μ Ξ yinc. tv. 12, 

of St. Paul (1 Cor. ix. 9 = Deut. xxv. 5), from which Moral, de Princ. 

we may gather that Origen intends to include under this %- 15, and_ the 


head the adaptation of the particulars of Scripture to Sadar ἘΝ ὡς 
the earthly life of man. ‘The spiritual explanation is 

that which shows the archetypes and substances imaged and shadowed 
in the Law;” and is found, by the teaching of the Apostles, to 
exist both in the ritual and in the historical books (1 Cor. x. 11; 
Gal. iv. 21—24; Heb. viii.5; Rom. xi. 4). The “spiritual world,” in 
which this interpretation is realized, may be regarded as heavenly, or as 
Christian and earthly:? when we contemplate the former, we explain 
“ anagogically,” and “allegories” properly are applied only to the latter. 
Thus, the prophecies which describe the character and 
fate of various nations under the Jewish dispensation 
may be referred, according to the one system (ἀναγωγή), to the inhabitants 
of the celestial regions correlative to the kingdoms on earth,’ or by the 
other (aAAeyopia), to spiritual characters unfolded by Christianity. 

We have now to inquire how far Origen refuses to acknowledge the 
literal sense in all cases: ‘‘ Some Scriptures,”’ he says, 
“have not the corporeal? (τὸ σωματικόν, 7. e., consequen- 
tiam historialis intelligentia, as Rufinus renders it), so 


de Prince. iv. 22. 


Ts the literal sense 
always true ? 
de Prine. iv. 12. 


that in such cases we must seek alone the soul and the spirit.” By this 
formal (εἶδος), and the combination of δυνάμενόν τε τοὺς πολλούς, ὧς χω- 
these (τὸ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν), De Anima, 11.2; ροῦσι, βελτιοῦν. 

and in his separation of the appetitive 2So Guericke (Hist. Sehole Catech. 
(ὀρεκτικόν), sensational (αἰσϑητικόν), ir. p. 60) rightly maintains against 


and rational (διανοητικόν), in human Mosheim and Rosenmiiller. 


life: De Anima, 11. 3 (the other species of 
life— the nutritive (ϑρεπτικόν), and the 
translative (κινητικὸν κατὰ τόπον), --- 
do not belong to this view). These sys- 
tems are naturally distinguished from 
the scriptural teaching by their less 
distinet exhibition of the ‘ spiritual” 
principle, which is absorbed in ‘ rea- 
son.” 

1Cf. De Prin. rv. 14. Προέκειτο 
“γὰρ καὶ τὸ ἔνδυμα τῶν πνευματικῶν, 
λέγω δὲ τὸ σωματικὸν τῶν γραφῶν, 
ἐν πολλοῖς ποιῆσαι οὐκ ἀνωφελές, 


3 In relation to this singular opinion 
compare Huet, Origeniana, τι. 2, 11, 
11: whatever Origen’s error may be, it 
is clear that it arises from an extreme 
regard to the letter of Scripture. 

4 Hom. 11. in Gen. § 6. Non semper 
in Scripturis divinis historialis conse- 
quentia stare potest, sed nonnunquam 
verbi causa deficit, ut Prov. xxvyi. 9; 1 
Regg. vi. 7; Lev. xiii. 

Origen finds a symbol of the ‘‘ two or 
three” meanings in John ji. 6 (de Prine. 
ty. 12), 


436 ON TIE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


he evidently means that certain passages, taken literally, do not instruct 
us, for no one can deny that they have a meaning. They may then be 
either untrue morally, or untrue historically; they may contain, in the 
letter, hurtful patterns, or symbolic narratives ; let us examine Origen’s 
opinion in relation to these two possible cases. 

With regard to the first class of instances, no one would maintain that 
the moral failings of the patriarchs (Gen. ix., xx., 
Xxxvili., which Origen quotes)! are objects for our 
direct imitation, and he himself asserts most strongly 
that the records are profitable in other ways. Again, we may include 
under this division those precepts of the Mosaic Law which are no longer 
needful for our moral training. These the Christian is to receive not lit- 
erally, but spiritually ; but though he does not value their outward sense, 
he is not therefore to cast them aside as worthless and worn out, but to 
seek for their inner significance.2 Origen does not deny that the details 
of the Law were actuallly observed, but he maintains also that they are 


Morally 2? 
Stom. fr. 
Hom. im Gen. vi. 


useful now.® 


But in some places, it will be said, Origen denies the literal truth of 


ee. facts. 
Ifistorically ? 


We have, indeed, already seen that he did not, 
as fanatics in those times as well as in our own, attribute 


passions to the Deity according to the letter of Scripture, but rather 
received its statements as true only in idea; and he carries out the same 


de Prine. iv. 16. 


principle somewhat further; he denies that we ought to 


understand literally the account given of God “ planting 
the garden of Paradise,” and “‘ walking in it in the cool of the evening.” 


1Cf. Hom. vi. in Gen.§1. Si quis 
hee (Gen. xx.) secundum litteram so- 
dum audire yult et intelligere, magis 
cum Judeis quam cum Christianis debet 
habere auditorium. Origen does not 
deny the literal truth of the fact, but 
its moral fitness. 

2 Cf. Hom. xt.in Num.§1f. Osten- 
dimus, ut opinor, auctoritate Seripturz 
divine ex iis que in lege seripta sunt 
aliqua penitus refugienda esse et ca- 
venda, ne secundum litteram ab Evan- 
gelii discipulis observentur; quedam 
vero omnimode, ut seripta sunt, obti- 
nenda, alia autem habere quidem se- 
cundum litteram veritatem sui, recipere 
tamen utiliter et necessario etiam alle- 
goricum sensum. Cf. Hom. x1. in Ex. 
§ 6; Hom. 1x. in Num. § 4. 

3 In some places he speaks of partic- 
ular details of the Law as unreasonable 
(ἄλογα. De Princ. 1v. 17) and impossi- 


ble, if taken merely in their obvious 
sense: e. g , Gen. xvii. 14; Exod. xvi. 
29; Jer. xvii. 21, 22. We may also un- 
derstand from this point of view his 
real meaning when he says that the 
law outwardly is “Jess elegant and 
reasonable than many human systems,” 
and that “10 may prove a stumbling- 
block without the Gospel; but in that 
all its discords are resolved, or, in Ori- 
gen’s own beautiful words: When the 
people murmured in the wilderness 
Moses led them to the rock to drink, 
and even now he Jeadeth them to 
Christ (Hom. x1. in Ex. § 2). 

The literal sense of some passages in 
the Gospels Origen holds to be similarly 
untenable: 6. g., Luke x. 4; Matt. x. 
10; vy. 89. Such examples show most 
distinctly the kind of error which he 
had to meet, and from which, indeed, 
he had himself suffered. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 437 


Yet more, he rejects that material theory of the Temptation which sup- 
poses that “all the kingdoms of the world were placed before the bodily 
eyes of Jesus, as contiguous to one mountain ;”’ and adds that ‘ whoever 
carefully examines the question will find countless similar incidents in the 
Gospels, not literally true [but true in idea], inwrought into those narra- 
tives which are to be received according to the letter.” 1! If Origen had 
rested here it would have been an easy task to defend him, but in other 
places he speaks still more boldly. When discussing the 
apparent discrepancies of the Evangelists, he says that 
“if one were to set them all forth, then would he turn 
dizzy, and either desist from trying to establish all the Gospels in very 
truth, and attach himself to one,...or, admitting thé four, grant that their 
truth does not lie in their corporeal forms” (ἐν τοῖς σωματικοῖς χαρακ- 
τῆρσι). But, at the same time, he only abandons the literal sense when he 
considers that it is self-contradictory, useless, or unworthy of God; he 
accepts all the Bible, and feels bound to give an intelligible reason for 
his faith :* he faces difficulties which many do not choose to see, and pro- 
poses a solution which only exhibits his veneration for Holy Scripture. 


Comm. in Joan. 
Tom. x. 2. 


Otherwise he admits the naked truth of the Patriarchal 


and Jewish history,’ for “those things which are true 


de Princ. iv. 19. 


historically are many more than those which contain merely a spiritual 


1 The Greek text stands as follows in 
Lommatzsch’s edition: παραπλησίως 
δὲ τούτοις Kal ἄλλα μυρία ἀπὸ τῶν 
εὐαγγελίων ἔνεστι τὸν ἀκριβοῦντα 
τηρῆσαι, ὑπὲρ τοῦ συγκαταϑέσϑαι 
συνυφαίνεσϑαι ταῖς κατὰ τὸ ῥητὸν 
γεγενημέναις ἱστορίαις, ἕτερα μὴ συμ- 
βεβηκότα. One MS. omits συνυφαίνεσ- 
Sat, and it seems likely that the word 
is merely a gloss to explain συγκατα- 
ϑέσϑαι, which is generally used in a 
different sense: the comma after ἵστο- 
plats should be removed. 

2 Comm. Ser. in Matt. § 184. Judicavi 
igitur bonum, ut accipiens bonum pro- 
positum eorum, qui in fide constantes 
esse desiderant, solutiones crimination- 
um eorum, in quantum mihi ex Deo est 
virtus, inveniam pro evangelica veri- 
tate: ut fideles non solum fide simplici, 
sed etiam ratione fidei muniantur in 
fide. . 

Strauss (Introd. § 4) has endeavored 
to find a mythical tendency in the fol- 
lowing beautiful passage: καὶ τοῦτο 
προλαβόντες δι ὅλην Thy φερομένην 
ἐν τοῖς εὐαγγελίοις περὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ 


od 


ἱστορίαν εἰρήκαμεν, οὐκ ἐπὶ ψιλὴν πίσ- 
τιν καὶ ἄλογον τοὺς ἐντρεχεστέρους 
ἐκκαλούμενοι, ἀλλὰ βουλόμενοι παρα- 
στῆσαι, ὅτι εὐγνωμοσύνης χρεία τοῖς 
ἐντευξομένοις, καὶ πολλῆς ἐξετάσεως, 
καί, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, εἰσόδου εἰς τὸ 
βούλημα τῶν “γραψάντων, ἵν᾽ εὑρεδῇ, 
ποίᾳ διανοίᾳ ἕκαστον γέγραπται. ec. 
Cels. 1. § 42. 


3 The Tenth Homily on Genesis is a 
good example of his method of dealing 
with such subjects. The passage re- 
ferred to is quite sufficient to show that 
he admits the reality of Rebecca’s his- 
tory, though he maintains that the 
Holy Spirit had a deeper object in dic- 
tating the record: hee fabulas putatis 
esse. et historias narrare in Scripturis 
Spiritum Sanctum (§ 2) for neither 
Jfabula nor μῦδϑος involve the falsity of 
the narrative which they convey. Cf. 
Hom. 1. in Ex.§1. Nos omnia que 
scripta sunt non pro narrationibus an- 
tiquitatum, sed pro disciplina et utili- 
tate nostra didicimus scripta. . . Hom. 
ι. ὧν Ex.§ 5. Non nobis hee ad his- 


438 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


sense ;” he is unshaken in his belief in the most remarkable miracles,‘ and 
paints with force and feeling* the details of ancient events (res geste), 
that they may minister to our instruction ; it is true that 
Christ ever opens the eyes of those who are mentally 
blind, but while on earth He restored to men their bodily 
sight: it is true that He ever raises the dead, but then He raised Lazarus 
from the grave; it is true that He ever stills the tempests in which the 
Church is tossed, when His disciples call upon Him, but then we know 
that He wrought the special work recorded in the Gospel history. Origen 
accepts the record — “‘for we know that all things which 
are written are true” — but he looks for something 
deeper; the question we have always to ask is, “ What 
is the meaning of this relation” (quo hee tendit historia)? 
for we cannot believe that it is ‘‘ mere history, and does not pertain to us.” 
The answer to this inquiry must be sought by careful and laborious criti- 
cism. In Origen’s judgment, we must insist on the strict interpretation of 
tenses and persons,’ and find a meaning in phrases which are commonly 
held to be vague conventionalities ;* we must not omit an article,® nor 
neglect an antithesis ;° for the fulness of our spiritual insight will be pro- 
portioned to the distinctness of our historical conception — the inward and 
the outward are so combined that we must proceed to the one by the 
other. 

From the passages which we have quoted it will appear that Origen’s 
errors lie rather in the application of his theory than in 
the theory itself; many of our greatest expositors un- 
consciously adopt his separate principles, but all, probably, would shrink 
back from imitating the haste and boldness of his deductions. Yet it 


Frag. in Ep. ad 
Gal. 


Hom. xvii. in Lue. 

Hom. v. in Lue. 

Hom, xxxviii. in 
Lue. 


Errors in detail. 


toriam scripta sunt, neque putandum 
est libros divinos ®gyptiorum gesta 
narrare, sed que scripta sunt ad nos- 
tram doctrinam et commonitionem 
scripta sunt. .. . Hom.1x. in Jos. § 7, 
Hee quidem veterum historiz referunt 
gesta: sed quomodo nos hanc histori 
narrationem ad mysticam intelligenti- 
am referemus?... 

1 For instance, in the history of Ba- 
laam. Hom. x11. in Num. § 8. 

2 Cf. Hom. 1x. in Num. § 5. 

8 Cf. Comm. Ser. in Matt. § 25; where 
he accepts the remarkable tradition 
which identifies ‘* Zacharias the son 
of Barachias’ with the father of Jolin 
the Baptist, from the form “ye slew” 
(Matt. xxiii. 30). Cf. Thilo, Cod. Apocr. 
Pro]. 64. See also Hom. x. in Luc. 
(Luke i. 76). Comm. in Matt. Tom. 
x1u.f. Matt. xvi. 19 (οἱ οὐρανοί), 


compared with Matt. xviii. 18 (6 οὐρα- 
v3). 

4 Hom. xv.in Gen. § 1. Si diligentius 
consideremus, inveniemus quia nun- 
quam fere in sanctum quis Jocum dici- 
tur descendisse, neque ad vituperabilem 
conscendisse memoratur. Cf. Hom. 
xx. in Luc. Crebro descendit Jesus 
eum discipulis nec absque fine 
sublimia tenet. Hom. in Josh. 11. 8. 

So again (Hom. 111. in Luc.) in Luke 
i. 11, he finds in the wora “ appeared ” 
a law of spiritual phenomena: [eorum] 
que sunt divina et superna in voluntate 
est videri et non videri. Cf. Hom. 1x. 
in Luc. (Luke i. 57). Ubicunque justus 
nascitur ibi complentur dies. 

5 Hom. xxxv. in Luc. (Luke xii. 58). 

6 Hom. vi1t. in Luc. (Luke i. 46: ψυ- 
χή --- μεγαλύνει, πνεῦμα --- ἀγαλλιά- 
Cera). 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 439 
must be remembered that when he first investigated the question of 
Scripture Interpretation, it was governed by no laws, and limited rather 
by custom than by reason. The Alexandrine school of Philo had long 
endeavored to rescue the Law, by any means, from the contempt of 
Philosophy; the teachers of the Christian Church had received certain 
models of exposition in the New Testament, and sought to reproduce 
their form without determining the basis of their construction. But Origen 
went further: he was dissatisfied with the inheritance of Jewish allegories 
and Christian imitations, and sought to determine afresh the true system 
of Biblical Criticism; he did not indeed decline the arduous labors of a 
scholar for the more pleasing speculations of a commentator ; but while 
he laid down deep and striking laws of Interpretation, he revised the 
text of Scripture with singular ingenuity and zeal. He felt that there 
was something more than a mere outward form in the Bible; he felt that 
the “words of God” must have an eternal significance,} 
for all that comes into relation with God is eternal; he 
felt that there is a true development and a real growth in the elements of 
Divine Revelation ;2 he felt the power and glory of the Spirit of Scripture 
bursting forth from every part; and can we wonder that he sometimes 
failed to notice the fair symmetry and perfect proportions of its frame- 
work? Can we condemn him for gazing too earnestly where we are 
unwilling to turn our eyes? Can we reject his entire system because it 
has been misapplied by others or by himself? It is not our purpose now 
to estimate the intrinsic merits of his scheme, or the extent to which he 
failed in using it, yet we may call to mind that the founder of modern 
Philosophy not only laid down the principles of knowledge, but also 
endeavored to employ them ; and it may be as unfair to disparage the sym- 
bolic interpretation of Scripture by Origen’s errors in detail, as to judge 
of the capabilities of Inductive Science from Bacon’s ‘f Theory of Heat.” 

It only remains for us now to refer to Origen’s view of the personal 
use of the Scriptures, which is too noble not to claim 
some slight notice. We must read them, he tells us, 
“with attention, yea, with great attention, for it is needed 
in reading the divine writings, that we may not speak or form notions 
about them rashly.”” We must read them with reverence : 
“for if we use great care in handling the Sacred Ele- 
ments, and rightly so, is it a less offence (piaculum) to 
disregard the Word of God than His Body?” We must read them with 


Natt. xxii. 32. 


The Study of 
Scripture. 
Ep. ad Greg. ὃ 3. 


Tlom. xiii. in Ex. 


1 Hom. 1x. in Num. § 7. Reconditum 
in 115 (ss. Scripturis) invenies et secre- 
tum mysteriorum sapientiz et scientiz 
Dei sensum, quo nutriantur et pascan- 
tur anime sanctorum non solum in 
presenti vita sed etiam in futura. 

2 Hom. τ. in Ex. § 1. Videtur mihi 
unusquisque sermo Civine Scripture 


similis esse alicui seminum, cujus na- 
tura hee est, ut cum jactum fuerit in 
terram regeneratum in spicam yel in 
quamcunque aliam sui generis speciem, 
multipliciter diffundatur, et tanto cu- 
mulatius quanto vel peritus agricola 
plus seminibus laboris impenderit vel 
beneficium terrze foecundius indulserit... 


440 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


pure hearts: for “no one can listen to the Word of God....... unless 
he be holy in body and spirit; .....mno one can enter 
into this feast with soiled garments.” Yet “the mere 
language of the Bible is not enough to reach the soul of 
man, unless power be given from God to the reader, and shed its influence 
(ἐπανϑεῖν) over the lesson;! for, if there are oracles of 
God in the Law and the Prophets, in the Gospels and 
Apostles, he who is a student (wadnrevduevos) of God’s oracles must place 
himself under the teaching of God” (δεήσει. ... .. 
διδάσκαλον ἐπιγράφεσϑαι ϑεόν) ; such a one must “seek 
their meaning by inquiry, discussion, examination, and, which is greatest, 
by prayer ;? “he must not be content to ‘knock’ and to ‘seek,’ for prayer 
is the most necessary qualification for the understanding of divine things, 
.....and the Saviour urged us to this when he said, not only ‘knock, 
and it shall be opened,’ ‘seek, and ye shall find,’ but also, ‘ask, and it 
shall be given you.’” If, then, we read the Bible with patience, prayer, 
and faith ; if we ever strive after a more perfect knowl- 
edge, and yet remain content in some things to know 
only in part, even as Prophets and Apostles, Saints and Angels, attain 
not to.an understanding of all things, —our patience will be rewarded, 
our prayer answered, and our faith increased. So “let 
us not weary in reading the Scriptures which we do not 
understand, but let it be unto us according to our faith, by which we believe 
that all Scripture, being inspired by God (ϑεόπνευστος οὖσα), is profitable.” 
“Oftentimes we derive good without perceiving it, for thus our life is 
supported; ..... 80, too, our spiritual life is frequently profited by the 
mere reading of Scripture, when our reason does not receive the fruit: a 
charm, as it were, acts upon our nature; its better elements are strength- 
ened and matured, the worse weakened and brought to nought.” 


TIom, xi. m Ex. 
§7. 


Ὁ: Cels. v2. § 2. 


ITom. in Jer. x.§1. 


Tlom. in Gen. xi. 3. 


de Prince. iv. 26. 


Hom. xx. in Jos. 


SECT. VII. — THE CLEMENTINES. 


There is yet one group of writings, stamped in common with the 
name and authority of Clement of Rome, which requires 
some notice. Of this the Clementine Homilies and Rec- 
ognitions are the most important representatives, which 
do not, I believe, yield in intellectual interest to any production of the 


THE 
TINES. 


CLEMEN- 


1 Cf. de Princ. tv. 10. Κἂν ἐπὶ τὰ 
εὐαγγέλια δὲ φϑάσωμεν, κἀκείνων ὃ 
ἀκριβὴς νούς, ἅτε νοῦς ὧν Χριστοῦ, 
δεῖται χάριτος τῆς δοδϑείσης τῷ εἰρη- 
κότι: ἡμεῖς δὲ νοῦν Χριστοῦ ἔχομεν 
(1 Cor. ii. 12). 

2 Hom. x11. in Ex. § 4. Non solum 
studium adhibendum est ad discendas 
litteras sacras, yerum et supplicandum 


Domino, et diebus et noctibus obse- 
crandum, ut veniat Agnus ex tribu Ju- 
da, et ipse accipiens librum signatum 
dignetur aperire. 

ὃ Hom. vir. in Lue. Utinam mihi 
eveniat ut ab infidelibus stultus dicar 
gui talibus credidi. Such are Origen’s 
words when contemplating the great 
mystery of Christianity. 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 441 


first three centuries.'. Both works present the same great outlines. Both 
give a history of the conflict between ‘the chief of the Apostles,” St. 
Peter, and the great enemy of the first age, Simon Magus. But under 
this general likeness they offer considerable differences in detail and theo- 
logical tendency. The Homilies are distinctly Ebionite and anti-Pauline, 
while the Recognitions present a view of the Person of our Lord inter- 
mediate between the opinions of Artemon and Arius.? The yalue of the 
Clementines does not, however, lie in the system of doctrine which they 
contain, for in this respect they are often confused and contradictory, but 
in a singular richness of thought and speculation. In reading them we 
seem to stand face to face with some old speculator who tries at one time 
to bring Christianity within the measure of his philosophy, and then again 
to solve former difficulties by Christian truth. Questions which we regard 
commonly as the growth of a later age are debated with subtle ingenuity. 
The “scepticism” of the first century is found to have been scarcely less 
powerful or less pregnant than that of our own. 

The existence of this speculative element in the early Church, hidden 
too often under the name of Gnosticism, is of the great- ἊΝ 

Ξ : Ξ Ε pie Their importance 
est importance for estimating rightly the growth of Chris- gs yecognizing a 
tianity in the face of an able and thoughtful opposition; — sceptical element in 
and the form of teaching to which it led is scarcely 1655 7" “9° 
interesting as a phase of mental culture. But without entering on these 
wider relations of the Clementines, we must confine ourselves to the light 
which they throw on the primitive idea of Inspiration. On this subject 
the Homilies and the Recognitions present points of difference which cor- 
respond with the fundamental differences of the two books, and both alike 
offer a striking contrast to the broad comprehensiveness of the Catholic 
doctrine which has been already traced in the fathers of the Church. 

The Homilies—and in this they only present a common error in a 
bolder form —regard Inspiration only in relation to the 
Prophet, and not to the Church. The individual over- 
powers the society: he at once conveys the message and interprets it. In 
this partial view the Homilies support the opposite extreme to Montan- 
ism. The Montanists regarded an ecstasy — a suspension of man’s natu- 
ral facilities — as the necessary mark of a divine teacher, 
but in the Homilies we read that “the Spirit must be 
innate and perpetual” (ἔμφυτον καὶ ἀένναον), and that the revelation must 
be distinctly conceived in the Prophet’s consciousness, for partial knowl- 
edge and temporary possession ‘belong to those who are maddened by 


i. The Womilies. 


Hom. wii. 12. 


1 For the general history of the give all that can be required. Of the 
Clementines, the works of Schliemann Homilies, Dressel’s edition (Gott. 1853) is 


(Die Clementinen. . . Hamb. 1844) and the best; of the Recognitions, the small 
Uhlhorn (Die Homilien und Recognitio- text of Gersdorf (Lips. 1838) the most 
nem εἰ. Klem. Rom. . . Gottingen, 1854) accessible. 


2 Schliemann, 583 ff. ; 380 ff. 


442. ON TIIE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


the spirits of disorder, and intoxicated by the reeking of altars.” The true 
Prophet, with boundless spiritual intuition (ἀπείρῳ ψυχῆς 
ὀφϑαλμῷ), sces and knows all things, mental and material 
(πάντα πάντοτε... πάϑη, τόπους, dpouvs), by an imme- 
diate and perfect knowledge, without the agency of dreams and visions ; 
for those influences are uncertain and no mark of piety, 
while the Prophet must be sure and sinless, —they are 
independent of the exercise of reason, while his power 
works through his soul. Such prophets were Adam, 
Moses, and Christ, who appear in clear preéminence above All other men, 
and next to them stand Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.! Tull 
the coming of Christ the Pentateuch — in its pure form — 
was the depository of Truth, for the later Prophets were 
inspired by the secondary power, typified by Eve, through which the divine 
element was involved in human corruptions. 

In one remarkable passage Peter is represented as declaring the nature 
of Revelation from his own experience, at the time when he received the 
blessing of the Lord. ‘The answer rose in my heart : 
Iknow not how I said, ‘Thou art the Son of the liy- 
ing God;’...and from that time I learnt that to learn 
without teaching, or vision, or dream, is Revelation. And truly it is so; 
for in that [truth] which is placed in us of God all truth is contained sem- 
inally (σπερματικῶς ), and is covered and revealed by the hand of God, 
who worketh in us according to the merit (ἀξίαν) of each; but that any- 
thing should be manifested from without, by visions or dreams, is clearly 
not an instance of Revelation, but of wrath.’ Though in this case the 
Apostle is made to claim the privilege cf a direct communication with 
God, in other places he declines the title of Prophet: “I 
am a servant of God, the Creator of all things,”’ he says ; 
“a disciple of His right (δεξίου) Prophet ; wherefore be- 
ing His Apostle I speak the truth;” and again, “Iam a disciple of the 
true Prophet, and not a Prophet.” 

With these subjective views of the prophetic office the writer of the 
Homilies does not hesitate to maintain the unauthenticity of the Mosaic 
writings. According to him, the Law was first given 
orally by the Prophet to the seyenty elders and after- 
wards reduced to writing, when the devil was permitted 
to introduce errors 7 into its form, that the hearts of its readers might be 


Flom. iii. 13. 


id. 


Hom. xvii. 15-17. 
Flom. vi. 6. 
Hlom, xvii. 14. 


Hom. tit. 23, 25. 


Matt. xvi. 16, 17. 
Hom. xvii. 18. 


Hom. vii. 11. 


Hom. xviii. 7. 


Hom. τι. 88 5 
a. 45 47. 


1 The seven Old Testament Prophets 
are called by the author of the Homi- 
lies the ‘‘seven pillars of the world” 
(Hom. χα. 18, 14). Cf. Schliemann, 
194 ff.; Uhlhorn, 164 if. 


2 The errors which are eumerated in 
the Clementines are partly the anthro- 


pomorphie descriptions of God’s anger, 
jealousy, repentance, etc. (#fom τι. 43); 
and partly the moral failings of the 
Patriarchs. It is worth while to recall 
the method by which Origen removed 
these difliculties. See above, p. 436. 
Schliemann (197, anm.) scarcely does 
justice to the great Christian Father. 


el -----. . 


ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 443 


tried ; yet this doctrine of the corruption of the Pentateuch is only for the 
advanced Christians, and not for the simple and unlearned. ‘The fitness 
of the Bible to prove the faith of man is beautifully 
described : ‘There are many representations of the De- 
ity in the Scriptures, . ..and each finds in them that idea of God which 
he wishes. Moreover, our soul within is arrayed for immortality in His 
image; if, then, I leave Him who gave it the likeness, the likeness justly 
will leave me.” .. Thus the right discrimination of the truth of the Scrip- 
tures must rest in the internal witness of the believer's 
heart, who should be, after his Lord’s command, “a 
good money-changer,”'! skilful to discern the true image of the Divine 
and the current counterfeit. 

“The Recognitions” differs in its whole doctrinal tendency from the 

Homilies, though it was undoubtedly based upon them. 
In this book Christianity is no longer regarded as identi- 
cal with pure Judaism, nor are the Prophets degraded 
into the ministers of a corrupt power; and though the full majesty of the 
Saviour is still unrecognized, He is raised above the ancient Lawgiver. 
Consistently with this view of the two economies, the author of the Re- 
cognitions declares the harmony of the Law, the Histo- eee 
ries, and the Prophets;* and, at the same time, he Recog. ii. 48; i. 
places the source and the proof of their Inspiration in % 
Jesus. The difficulties which beset the understanding of the Scriptures 
are not attributed to the outward corruptions of an evil 
spirit, but to the “sin which has grown up with (coado- 
levit) men;”’ so that the truth is not referred to the judg- 
ment of the personal consciousness, but drawn from the tradition of the 
appointed teachers in the Church. 

Yet more, The Recognitions differs from the Homilies in the view 
which it gives of the mode, the extent, and the instruments of Divine 
Revelation. In the Homilies we read that dreams and 
yisions are marks of God’s wrath, but in the Recogni- 
tions it is said that He has condescended to address men by such outward 
agencies ; and the objective glorics of the Mosaic Law — “ the heavenly 
voices and visions of Sinai” — are distinctly acknowledged. The impor- 
tance of this difference will be more apparent when we remember that the 
eall of St. Paul? to his Christian mission was made by a glorious appear- 
ance of the Lord, who further instructed the future Apostle of the Gentiles 
by visions in Arabia, Jerusalem, and Paradise. In another place the 


Tlom. xvi. 10. 


Tom. tii. 50. 


ti. The Recogni- 
tions. 


Recog. i. 21. 
Recog. vi. 45, 55. 


Recog. iv. 21. 


1 Hom. 11. 51: εὐλόγως 6 διδάσκαλος guttis misericordie ejus irrorati ex- 
ἡμῶν ἔλεγεν" γίνεσϑε τραπεζῖται δό- clamabant (Recog, 11. 44). 
κιμοι. Cf. Cotelerius, 1. c.; Δι p. 425. In another place we read: Imagines 
2 Thus quotations from the Psalms gestorum Moysi et ante ipsum patri- 
are introduced with the ‘following archx Jacob, ipsius (veri prophetz) per 
words: Sancti Spiritu Dei repleti, et omnia typum ferebant (Recog. v.10). 
' 8 Por this remark I am indebted to Schliemann, 812. 


444 ON THE PRIMITIVE DOCTRINE OF INSPIRATION. 


whole circle of natural acquirements is included by the author of the Recog- 
nitions in the gifts of the Apostolate: Peter is described 
“as a man of God, full of all knowledge (plenus totius 
scientic), acquainted even with Greek learning, because he is filled with 
the Spirit of God;” though, indeed, such empty eloquence (/oquacitas) 
was unsuited to the dignity of one who rightly spake of heavenly things. 
For the Christian has another and an abiding source of wisdom in the 
presence of “the true Prophet,” who teaches him accord- 
ti ag ing to his needs. This “true Prophet,” even Christ, is 
Recog. i. 21. the one illuminator of the soul. He is the sole author of 
oor Ln all perception of the divine and the eternal. He alone 
knows all the past, the present, and the future. The 
whole existence of the world is but as the course through which He 
hastens to rest. He taught the patriarchs, and in each generation was 
present to the good, though under a veil, especially to those who looked 
for Him. The progress of history was in some sense a preparation for 
His Incarnation, which was the most powerful charm to 
win the love of men. And when He died “all the 
world suffered with Him : for the sun was darkened, and 
the mountains were rent asunder, and the graves were opened, and the veil 
of the temple was torn, as if in sorrow for the destruction which was com- 
ing upon the place.’ ? 


Recog. viit. 5. 


Recog. i. 60. 
Recog. i. 54. 


The general effect of the inquiry into the early doctrine of “ Inspiration 
of Scripture,” which is now completed, is to confirm in the fullest degree 
the results which were obtained independently from a consideration of the 
idea of awritten record of a Divine revelation. The unanimity of the early 
Fathers in their views on Holy Scripture is the more remarkable when it is 
taken in connection with the great differences of character, and training, 
and circumstances by which they were distinguished. In the midst of 
errors of judgment and errors of detail, they maintain firmly, with one 
consent, the great principles which invest the Bible with an interest most 
special and most universal, with the characteristics of the most vivid indi- 
viduality and of the most varied application. They teach us that inspi- 
ration is an operation of the Holy Spirit acting through men, according to 
the laws of their constitution, which is not neutralized by His influence, 
but adopted as a vehicle for the full expression of the Divine Message. 
They teach us that it is generally combined with the moral progress and 
purification of the teacher, so that there is on the whole a moral fitness in 
the relation of the prophet to the doctrine. They teach us that Christ — 
the Word of God — speaks from first to last; that all Scripture is per- 
manently fitted for our instruction; that a true spiritual meaning, eternal 
and absolute, lies beneath historical and ceremonial and moral details. 
They teach us that this view was in their time no late invention, but a 


1 Schliemann, 311 2 Cf. Uhlhorn, 284. 


ON TIE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS. 445 


tradition which they received and transmitted, each according to his skill 
endeayoring to carry out the principles which he had learnt. [0 is possi- 
ble that objections, more or less serious, may be urged against various 
parts of the doctrine, but it cannot, I think, be denied that as a whole it 
lays open a view of the Bible which vindicates with the greatest clearness 
and consistency the claims which it makes to be considered as one harmo- 
nious message of God, spoken “in many parts and many manners ” by 
men and to men—the distinct lessons of individuai ages reaching from 
one time to all time. If it be false, we shall then be bound to inquire 
earnestly what are the grounds, the proofs, the limits of our own belief ; 
if it be true, we shall certainly be led to prize the Scriptures more highly 
and more personally, as inexhaustible wells of living water, ever spring- 
ing up unto eternal life. 


Verum hac per excessum quendam, rei tamen ipsius consequentia commonitos 
breviter dixisse sufficiat ad ostendendum id quod sunt 
quedam quorum significatio proprie nullis omnino potest 
humane lingue sermonibus explicari, sed simpliciore magis 
intellectu, quam ullis verborum proprictatibus declarantur. Ad quam regulam 
etiam divinarum Seripturarum intelligentia retinenda est, quo scilicet ea que 
dicuntur non pro vilitate sermonis sed pro divinitate Sancti Spiritus qui eas 
conseribi inspiravit, censeantur. 


Orig. de Prine, 


wv. 27. 


APPENDIX» €. 


ON THE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS OF THE LORD’S WORDS 
AND WORKS. 


SuvaydyeTe τὰ περισσεύσαντα κλάσματα ἵνα μή τι ἀπόληται. --- Sv. 
JOHN, VI. 12, 


Tr is a fact of great significance, that traditional accounts of words or 
works of the Lord which are not noticed in the Gospels 
are extremely rare. The Gospels are the full measure aces ate 
of what was known in the Apostolic age, and (may we 
not add?) of what was designed by Providence for the instruction of 
after-ages. There are, however, some fragments which appear to contain 
true and original traits of the Lord’s teaching, and as such are invested 
with the greatest interest. Some traditional sayings, again, are evidently 
duplicate recensions of passages contained in the Gospels. Others are so 
distorted by the admixture of explanation or comment as to present only, 
a very narrow point of connection with the Evangelic history. The follow- 
ing collection of these various kinds of traditional sayings is as complete 


38 


ἣν 


410 ON THE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS 


as I have been able to make it, but may probably still admit of additions. 
The first saying is stamped with the authority of St. Paul, and cannot, 
therefore, be called apocryphal, but it is too important a supplement to 
the records of the Gospel to be passed over in an account ef “ unwritten 


words.” 1 


1. ... Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how 


1. Traditional 
words. 


He said, It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 


(a) Original tra- xx. 35).2 Compare Luke vi. 30. The saying does 


ditions. 


not appear, so far as I know, elsewhere. 


2. On the same day, having seen one working on the Sabbath, He said 
to him, O man, if indeed thou knowest what thou doest, thou art blessed ; but 
of thou knowest not thou art cursed, and art atransgressor of the law.® 

3. But ye seck to increase from little, and from greater to be less.4 Cf. John 


v. 44. 


4. The Son of God says, Let us resist all iniquity, and hold it in hatred® 
5. Thus He [Christ] saith, They who wish to see me and to lay hold on my 
kingdom must receive me by affliction and suffering® Cf. Matt. xvi. 24; 


Acts xiv. 22. 


11 have been unable to obtain Koer- 
ner, De dictis Christi ἀγράφοις, 
1776. The collection by Bunsen, Anal. 
Ante-Nic. 1. 29 ff. is very imperfect. On 
the other hand, that of Anger (Synops. 
Evang. quoted before) is, as far as he 
goes, very complete. 

2... μνημονεύειν τῶν λόγων TOU Kv- 
ptov Ἰησοῦ ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν, Maka 
ριόν ἐστιν μᾶλλον διδόναι 
ἢ λαμβάνειν. 

8 This very remarkable narrative oc- 
curs in Cod. D, after Luke vi. 4: τῇ 
αὐτῇ ἡμέρᾳ ϑεασάμενός τινα ἐργαζόμ- 
ενον τῷ σαββάτῳ εἶπεν αὐτῷ ἼΑ ν- 
ϑρωπε, εἰ μὲν οἶδας τί ποι- 
ες μακαριος ef εἰ δὲ μὴ 
οἶδας ἐπικατάρατος καὶ παρα- 
βάτης- εἶ τοῦ νόμον. The form 
of address (&vdp.) occurs Luke xii. 14; 
ἐπικατάρατος occurs John vii. 47; παρα- 
Barns νόμου is a phrase of St. Paul. 
It is evident that the saying rests on 
some real incident; but it does nor re- 
cur elsewhere. 

Other additions which occur in D 
seem to be only new versions of passa- 
ges in the Gospels. The most remarka- 
ble are: 

After § 8, Matt. xx. 28, εἰσερχόμενοι 
δὲ καὶ παρακληϑέντες δειπνῆσαι μὴ 


ἀνακλίνεσϑαι (ἀνακλίνεσϑε) εἰς τοὺς 
ἐξέχοντας τόπους, μήποτε ἐνδοξότερός 
σου ἐπέλϑῃ, καὶ προσελϑὼν ὃ δειπνο- 
κλήτωρ εἴπῃ σοι. Ἔτι κάτω χώρει, καὶ 
καταισχυνϑήσῃ" ἐὰν δὲ ἀναπέσῃς εἰς 
τὸν ἥττονα τόπον καὶ ἐπέλϑῃ σου ἥτ-. 
των, ἐρεῖ σοι ὃ δειπνοκλήτωρ Ξύναγε 
ἔτι ἄνω, καὶ ἔσται σοι τοῦτο χρῆσι- 
μον. 

John vi. 56: καϑὼς ἐν ἐμοὶ ὁ πατὴρ 
κἀγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρί. ἀμήν, ἀμὴν λέγω 
ὑμῖν, ἐὰν μὴ λάβητε τὺ σῶμα τοῦ υἱοῦ 
τοῦ avdipemov ὡς τὸν ἄρτον τῆς ζωῆς 
οὐκ ἔχετε ζωὴν ἐν αὐτῷ. The same 
passage occurs in some Latin authori- 
ties. 

4 Cod. D, and it. pler. after Matt. 
xx.28: ὑμεῖς δὲ ζητεῖτε ἐκ μικροῦ 
αὐξῆσαι καὶ éx μείζονος ἔλαττον εἶναι. 
This striking sentence is variously ren- 
dered by the Latin MSS. It seems to 
be a genuine fragment. The phrase @A- 
αττον εἶναι is very remarkable. 

5 Barn. Ep. 4... dicit filius Dei: Pe- 
sistamus omni iniquitati et odio habea- 
mus eam. 

The passage quoted by Barnabas, 6. 6, 
Dov, ποιήσω τὰ ἔσχατα ὡς τὰ πρῶτα, 
seems to be a mixture of Ezek. xxxvi. 
11 and Matt. xix. 80. 

6 Barn. Ep. 7: οὕτω», φησίν, of 


OF TIIE LORD’S 


6. Show yourselves tried money-changers.1 


7. He that wonders shall reign ; 
wonder at that which is before you.* 


WORDS 


and he that reigns shall rest.” 


AND WORKS. 447 


Cf. 1 ‘Thess. v. 21 
Look with 


8. 7 came to put an end to sacrifices, and unless ye cease from sacrificing 


| God's] anger will not cease from you. 


Cf. Matt. ix. 18. 


9. Jesus said to His disciples, Ask great things, and the small shall be 
added unto you; and ask heavenly things, and the earthly shall be added unto 


you.” Cf. Matt. vi. 33. 


10. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, Zn whatsoever I may find you, in this 


will I also judge you.® 
Lord.’ 


Such as I may find thee, I will judge thee, saith the 


The Saviour Himself says, He who is near me is near the fire; he 


who is fur from me is far from the kingdom? 


SéAovrés pe ἰδεῖν καὶ & 
ασϑαί μουν τῆς βασιλείας 
ὀφείλουσι ϑλιβόντες καὶ 


παδόντες λαβεῖν με. 

1 Γίνεσϑε τραπεζῖται δόκιμοι. Apel- 
les ap. Epiph. 44, 2; Orig. in Joann. 
XIX. ete.; cf. Anger, p. 274. This is the 
most commonly quoted of all apocry- 
phal sayings, and seems to be genuine. 
The thought is explained in an addition 
to the parable of the Talents which oc- 
curs in the Clementine Homilies, = 0 0 
Ὑ ἀρ, φησὶν [ὁ Κύριος], &vd ρωπε, 
τοὺς λόγους μου ὡς ἀργύ- 
ριον ἐπὶ τραπεζιτῶν καὶ 
ὡς χρήματα δοκιμάσαι (Clem. 
Hom. 111. 61). 

2Ex Ev. Hebr. ap. Clem. Al. Strom. 
11.9,§45: Ὁ ϑαυμάσας βασι- 
λεύσει καὶ 6 βασιλεύσας- 
ἀναπαυϑήσεται. 

3 Trad. Matt. ap. Clem. Al. Strom. 
11. 9, § 4: ϑαύμασον τὰ πα- 
ρόντα βαδμὸν τοῦτον πρῶτον τῆς 
ἐπέκεινα γνώσεως ὑποδϑέμενος. 

4 Ev. Ebion.ap. Epiph. Her. xxx. 10, 
p. 140: Ἦλϑον καταλῦσαι τὰς ϑυσίας, 
καὶ ἐὰν μὴ παύσησϑε τοῦ Svew οὐ 
παύσεται ap ὑμῶν ἣ ὀργή. 

5 Orig. de Orat. § 2: εἶπε γὰρ 6 Ἴη- 
σοῦς τοῖς μαϑηταῖς αὐτοῦ Αἰτεῖτε 


τὰ μεγάλα καὶ τὰ μικρὰ 

ὑμῖν προστεδήσεται, καὶ 
a U 

αἰτεῖτε τὰ ἐπουράνια καὶ 


τὰ ἐπίγεια προστεδήσεται 
ὑμῖν. Cf. Clem. Str. 1.24, § 158: αἷ- 


Cf. Luke xii. 49. 


τεῖσϑε γάρ, φησί, τὰ μεγάλα 
καὶ τὰ μικρὰ ὑμῖν προστε- 
ϑήσεται. Id. Strom. 1v. 6, ὁ 84. 

6 Just. M. Dial. 47: ὁ ἡμέτερος Κύ- 
ptos Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς εἶπεν. “Ev ois 
ἂν ὑμᾶς καταλάβω, τς τού- 
τοις καὶ κριν ὦ. Clem. . Quis 
dives, § 40: Ἐφ᾽ οἷς γὰρ ib εὕρω 
ὑμᾶς, φησίν, ἐπὶ τούτοις καὶ 

κρινῶ. 

7 Nilus ap. Anast. Sin. Queest. 4 (An- 
ger, p.207): οἷον yap |av] εὕρω 
σε, τοιοῦτόν σε κρινῶ, φησὶν 
ὁ Κύριος. 

8 Orig. Hom. in Jerem. Ul. p. Τῖϑ: 
Legi alicubi quasi Salvatore dicente, et 
quero sive quis personam figurarit Sal- 
vatoris, sive in memoriam adduxerit, 
ac verum sit hoc quod dictum est. Ait 
autem ipse Salvator: Qui juxta me est, 
Jurta ignem est; quilonge a me longe 
est α regno. 

Didymus, in Ps. 88,8: διὸ φησὶν 6 
Σοτήρ Ὁ ἐγγύς pov ἐγγὺς- τοῦ 
πυρός ὃ δὲ μακρὰν aw ἐμοῦ 
μακρὰν ἀπὺ τῆς- βασιλείας. 

For the knowledge of this remarka- 
ble saying I am indebted to the Rey. 
F. J. A. Hort. 

A very similar phrase occurs in Igna- 
tius (ad Smyrn. 4): ἐγγὺς μαχαίρας 
ἐγγὺς ϑεοῦ: μεταξὺ μαχαίρας μεταξὺ 
Seov; and both phrases offer some 
resemblance to one quoted from the 
Doctrine of Peter- by Gregory Naz. 
(Ep. 1. ad. Ces. ap. Credn. Beitr. 


448 


ON THE APOCRYPIIAL TRADITIONS 


12. The Lord says in the Gospel, 77 ye kept not that which is small, who 


will give you that which is great ? 


clause coincides verbally). 


For I say unto you, that he thut is faithful 
in very little is faithful also in much. 


Cf. Luke xvi. 11, 12, 10 (the last 


13. [The Lord] says, Keep the flesh pure and the seal unspotted, that we 
may receive eternal life (perhaps that ye may receive eternal life.) * 

14. The Lord Himself having been asked by some one, When His 
kingdom will come? said, When the two shall be one, and that which is 
without as that which is within, and the male with the female neither male nor 


female? Cf. Gal. iii. 28. 


15. Jesus says, For those that are sick Iwas sick, and for those that hunger 


1 suffered hunger, and for those that thirst I suffered thirst.4 
35, 36 (ἐπείνασα, ἐδίψησα, ἠσδένησα). 


Cf. Matt. xxv. 


16. ... In the Hebrew Gospel we find the Lord saying to His disciples, 
Never be joyful except when ye shall look on your brother in love.® 


I. 853): Kduvovoa ψυχὴ ἐγγύς ἐστι 
δεοῦ, 

1 [Clem. Rom.] Ep. 11.8: λέγει γὰρ 
ὁ Κύριος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ Εἰ τὸ 
μικρὸν οὐκ ἐτηρήσατε, τὸ 
μέγα τίς ὑμῖν δώσει; λέγω 
γὰρ ὑμῖν, ὅτι ὁ πιστὸς K.T.A. 

This form of the thought occurs again 
in Irenzus (11. 34, 3): St im modico fi- 
deles non fuistis, quod magnum est 
quis dabit vobis ? 

2[Clem. Rom.] Ep. 11.8: apa οὖν 
λέγει, Τηρήσατε τὴν σάρκα 
ἁγνὴν καὶ τὴν σφραγῖδα ἄσ- 
πιλον, ἵνα τὴν αἰώνιον ζωὴν ἀπολά- 
βωμεν (-ητε 1). 

8 [Clem. Rom.] £p. τι. 12: ἐπερωτη- 
dels... αὐτὸς 6 Κύριος ὑπό τινος πότε 
ἥξει αὐτοῦ ἡ βασιλεία, εἶπεν Ὅταν 
ἔσται τὰ δύο ἕν καὶ τὸ ἔξω 
ὡς τὸ ἔσω καὶ τὸ ἄρσεν μετὰ 
τῆς δηλείας οὔτε ἄρσεν 
οὔτε δῆλυ. This mystical saying, 
which seems very different in form 
from the character of our Lord's 
words, is found in Clement of Alex- 
andria in several shapes. Strom 111.9, 
§§ 63 ff.: φασὶ yap ὅτι αὐτὸς εἶπεν ὁ 
Σωτήρ Ἦλϑον καταλῦσαι τὰ 
ἔργα τῆς ϑηλείας.. ἡ Σαλώμη 
φησί Μέχρι τίνος of ἄνϑρωποι ἀποϑαν- 
οὔνται; . . . ὃ Κύριος ἀποκρίνεται 
Μέχρις ἂν τίκτωσιν αἱ γυ- 
ναῖκες.. Καλῶς οὖν ἐποίησα μὴ τε- 
κοῦσα... . ἀμείβεται ὁ Κύριος Πᾶσαν 


φάγε βοτάνην τὴν δὲ πικ- 
ρίαν ἔχουσαν μὴ φάγῃ. .- ld. 
18, § 92: πυνϑανομένης τῆς Σαλώμης 
πότε γνωσδήσεται τὰ περὶ ὧν ἤρετο, 
ἔφη ὁ Κύριος Ὅταν τὸ τῆς αἰσ- 
χύνης ἔνδυμα πατήσητε, καὶ 
ὅταν γένηται τὰ δύο ἕν καὶ 
τὸ ἄῤῥεν μετὰ τῆς SnAElas 
οὔτε ἄῤῥεν οὔτε δῆλυ. Clem- 
ent believes, he says, that the narrative 
was contained in the Gospel according 
to the Egyptians. 

A passage of Pseudo-Linus (De Pas- 
sione Petri), for which I am indebted 
to Baron Bunsen (Anal. Ante-Nice. I. p. 
31), appears to contain another version 
of this saying: Dominus in mysterio 
dixerat, Si non feceritis dextram sicut 
sinistram et sinistram sicut dextram et 
que sursum sicut deorsum et que ante 
sicut retro non cognoscitis regnum Dei. 

A good instance of the mixture of a 
mystic explanation with a simple text 
occurs ina passage of the Πίστις Σοφία, 
quoted by Tischendorf, on Matt. XxIv. 
22. 

4 Orig In Matt. Tom, x111.2: Ἰησοῦς 
γοῦν φησί Διὰ τοὺς ἀσϑενοῦν- 
τας ἠσδένουν, καὶ διὰ τοὺ 5 
πεινῶντας ἐπείνων, καὶ διὰ 
τοὺς διψῶντας ἐδίψων. The 
words appear to be only an adaptation 
of the passage in St. Matthew. 

5 Hieron. in Eph. v. 8: in Hebraico. 

. Evangelio Jegimus Dominum ad 


OF THE LORD’S WORDS AND WORKS. 


449 


17. ... When the Lord came to Peter and the Apostles [after His 
resurrection], He said to them, Take hold, handle me, and see that I am not 


an incorporeal spirit. 


And straightway they touched Him and believed, 


being convinced by His flesh and by His Spirit. 
18. Christ said: Good must needs come, but blessed is he through whom 


zt comes.2 


19. It was not through unwillingness to impart His blessings that the 
Lord announced in some Gospel or other: Aly mystery is for me and for 
the sons of my house. Wevemember our Lord and Master, how he said to 
us: Keep my mysteries for me and for the sons of my house 

20. The cause, therefore, of the divisions of soul that came to pass in 
houses [Christ] Himself taught, as we have found in a place in the Gospel 


discipulos loguentem: Hé nunqwam, in- 
quit, leti sitis, nist quum fratrem ves- 
trum videritis in caritate. 

In another place (adv. Pelag. 111. 2) 
Jerome has preserved from the same 
source a version of Matt. xviii. 22... 
(Luke xvii. 4), differing from the canon- 
ical text: Si peccaverit, inquit, frater 
tuus in verbo et satis tibi fecerit, septies 
in die suscipe eum. Dixit illi Simon 
discipulus ejus: Septies in die? Re- 
spondit Dominus et dixit ei: Etiam ego 
dico tibi, usque septuagies septies. Et- 
enim tw prophetis quoque, postquam 
uncti sunt Spiritu Sancto, inventus est 
sermo peccati. The Greek text of this 
passage has been given by Tischendorf 
from the margin of one of his new 
MSS. (Notitia, etc., p.58), as taken from 
τὸ ᾿Ιουδαϊκόν. But the Greek does not 
remove the obscurity of the last clause. 
Td ᾿Ιουδαϊκὸν ἑξῆς, ἔχει μετὰ τὸ EB- 
δομηκοντάκις ἑπτά; καὶ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς 
προφήταις μετὰ τὸ χρισϑῆναι, αὐτὸς 
ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ, εὑρίσκεται ἐν αὐτοῖς 
λόγος ἁμαρτίας (ad Matt. xviii. 22). 
The MS. contains other varieties of 
reading, from the same source, on Matt. 
ἦν. 5; xvi. 17; xxvi. 74, which all tend 
to show the close connection of the 
apocryphal and canonical texts. 

Jerome again refers to the saying 
given in the text in Comm. in Ezech. 
VI., ΧΥΠΙ. 7,...in Evangelio quod 
juxta Hebraos Nazarzi legere consuev- 
erunt, inter maxima ponitur crimina, 
qui fratris sui spiritum contristaverit. 


1 Ignat. ad Smyrn.8:... ὅτε πρὸς 
Tous περὶ Πέτρον ἦλϑεν, ἔφη αὐτοῖς. 
Λάβετε, ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ 
ἴδετε ὅτι οὐκ εἰμὶ δαιμό- 
νιον ἀσώματον. Καὶ εὐϑδϑὺς αὐ- 
τοῦ ἥψαντο καὶ ἐπίστευσαν, κρατη- 
ϑέντες τῇ σαρκὶ αὐτοῦ καὶ τῷ πνεύ- 
ματι. 

The same words are quoted by Jerome 
from the Nazarene Gospel, De. Vir. 
Illustr.16: Ecce palpate me et videte 
quia non sum demonium incorporeum. 
Cf. Hieron. Zn Isat. Lib. xvu11. Prol. 
The chief clause occurred also in the 
Doctrine of Peter: Non sum demonium 
incorporeum (Orig. de Princ. Pref. 8). 
Cf. Euseb. H. Ὁ. 111. 36. 


2 Clem. Hom. x11.29: ἔφη Ta ay- 
asa ἐλϑεῖν Set μακάριος 
δέ, φησίν, δι οὗ ἔρχεται. The 
other sayings which occur in the Hom- 
ilies (111.55): 6 πονηρός ἐστιν 
6 πειράζων. x1x.2: Μὴ δότε 
πρόφασιν τῷ πονηρῷ, ete., 
seem less likely to be genuine. 


8 Clem. Alex. Strom. v.10, § 64: οὐ 
γὰρ φϑονῶν, φησί, παρήγγειλεν 6 
Κύριος ἔν τινι εὐαγγελίῳ, Μυστ 4- 
ριον ἐμὸν ἐμοὶ καὶ τοῖς 
υἱοῖς τοῦ οἴκον μου. Clem. 
Hom. x1x. 20: Μεμνήμεϑα τοῦ Κυρίου 
ἡμῶν καὶ διδασκάλου ὡς ἐντελλόμενος 


εἶπεν ἡμῖν Τὰ μυστήρια ἐμοὶ 
καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς τοῦ οἴκον 
μου φυλάξατε. 


38* 


450 ON THE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS 


existing among the Jews in the Hebrew language, in which it is said: I 


ο 
will select to myself these things (<0) : very very excellent are those whom 
my Father who is in heaven has given to me. 

21...... The Lord taught of those days [of His future kingdom on 
earth] and said: The days will come in which vines shall spring up, each 
having ten thousand stocks, and on each stock ten thousand branches, and on 
each branch ten thousand shoots, and on each shoot ten thousand bunches, and 
on each bunch ten thousand grapes, and each grape when pressed shall give 
Jive and twenty measures of wine. And when any saint shall have scized one 
bunch, another shall cry: [am a better bunch ; take me; through me bless the 
Lord, Likewise also [He said], that a grain of wheat shall produce ten 
thousand ears of corn, and each grain ten pounds of fine pure flour; and 
so all other fruits and seeds and each herb according to its proper nature. 
And that all animals, using for food what is received from the earth, shall 
live in peace and concord with one another, subject to men with all sub- 
jection...... And he [Papias] added, saying: Now these things are 
credible to them which believe. And when Judas the traitor believed not 
and asked: How then shall such productions proceed from the Lord ? 
the Lord said, They shall see who shall come to these times. Of this then 
(Irenzeus adds) Isaiah prophesied, Isai. xi. 6 ff.*..... 

In addition to these passages, which seem to contain in a more or less 
altered form traces of words of our Lord, there are 
other fragments which are either variations of known 
sayings, or (as it appears) sentences framed to suit the 
character of the apocryphal work in which they were found. Of these 
fragments the following are the most remarkable : 

1. The Lord said: Should you be with me gathered in my bosom, and not 
do my commandments, I will cast you off, and say to you, Go from me, I know 
you not whence you are, workers of iniquity.® Cf. Matt. vii. 21-23. 

2. The Lord saith: Ye shall be lambs in the midst of wolves. But Peter 
answers Him, and saith: What, then, should the wolves tear in pieces the 
lambs? Jesus said to Peter: Let not the lambs fear the wolves after they 
are dead ; and do you fear not those who kill you and can do nothing to you ; 


(b) Variations of 
Evangelic words. 


1 Eusebius, Theophania, 1v. 13 (p. 
234, Prof. Lee’s Translation). This 
quotation seems to have been un- 
noticed. 

2 Papias, cf. Iren. v. 83, 3. It is evi- 
dent that this famous passage gives 
only a very imperfect representation of 
the discourse of the Lord to which it 
refers, for I think that it is certainly 
based on areal discourse. It must be 
observed that the narrative is now only 
preserved in a Latin translation of a 
free quotation from Papias, who gave 


it on the authority of those who had 
heard St. John speak of teaching of the 
Lord to such effect. The history of the 
tradition is a sufficient explanation of 
the corruption which it has suffered. 

3 [Clem. Rom.] τι. 4:... εἶπεν ὁ Ku- 
pis Ἐὰν ἦτε pet ἐμοῦ συν- 
ἡγμένοι ἐν τῷ κόλπῳ μου, 
καὶ μὴ ποιῆτε τὰς ἐντο- 
Ads pov, ἀποβαλῶ ὕὑμᾶς. 
καὶ ἐρῶ ὑμῖν Ὑπάγετε ἀπ’ 
ἐμοῦ, οὐκ ofda ὑμᾶς ποϑὲεν 
ἔστε, ἐργάται ἀνομίας. 


OF THE LORD’S WORDS AND WORKS 451 


but fear Him who after you are dead hath power over soul and body, to cast 
them into hell-fire4 Cf. Matt. x. 16, 28; Luke xii. 4, 5. 

3. In the Preaching of Peter the Lord says to the disciples after the 
Resurrection: 1 chose out you twelve disciples, having judged you worthy of 
me2 Cf. John vi. 70; xv. 16. 

4. Peter says that the Lord said to the Apostles : Should then any one 
of Israel be willing to repent, so as to believe upon God through my name, his 
sins shall be forgiven him. After twelve years go out into the world, lest any 
one say, “ We did not hear.” ® 

5. . .. According to some who alter the Gospels [Christ says] : Blessed 
are they who have been persecuted through righteousness, for they shall be per- 
Sect ; and blessed are they who have been persecuted for my sake, for they shall 
have a place where they shall not be persecuted* Cf. Matt. ν. 10. 

6. ... The Word says to us : Should any one for this reason kiss [a woman] 
a second time because she pleased him [he sins]; and adds, Men must there- 
fore act thus with extreme caution in the kiss [ot peace] (or rather the salu- 
tation), as knowing that, if perchance it should be sullied by thought, it would 


place them out of the pale of eternal life.® 

7... . [In the Gospel according to the Hebrews] the Saviour Himself 
says: Just now my Mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs, and 
bore me away to the great mountain, Thabor.6 


1Clem. Rom. 11. 5: Δέγει γὰρ 6 
Κύριος Ἔσεσϑε ws ἀρνία ἐν 
μέσῳ λύκων. ᾿Αποκριϑεὶς δὲ 6 
Πέτρος αὐτῷ λέγει "Edy οὖν δια- 
σπαράξωσιν οἱ λύκοι τὰ ἀρνία; Εἶπεν ὁ 
Ἰησοῦς τῷ Πέτρῳ Μὴ φοβείσδω- 
σαν τὰ ἀρνία τοὺς λύκους 
μετὰ τὸ ἀποϑανεῖν αὐτά' καὶ 
ὑμεῖς μὴ φοβεῖσϑε τοὺς ἀπ- 
οκτείνοντας ὑμᾶς καὶ μηδὲν 
δυναμένους ποιεῖν: ἀλλὰ φο- 
βεῖσϑε τὸν μετὰ τὺ ἀποϑα- 
νεῖν ὑμᾶς ἔχοντα ἐξουσίαν 
ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος, τοῦ βα- 
χεῖν εἰς γέενναν πυρός. 

2Clem. Al. Strom. νι. 43: ἐν τῷ 
Πέτρου Κηρύγματι ὁ Κύριός φησι πρὸς 
τοὺς μαϑδητὰς μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν 
Ἐξελεξάμην ὑὑμας δώδεκα 
μαϑητάς, κρίνας ἀξίους ἐμοῦ. 

3 Clem. Al. Strom. vi. § 43: διὰ τοῦτο 
φησὶν ὃ Πέτρος εἰρηκέναι τὸν Κύριον 
τοῖς ἀποστόλοις Ἐὰν μὲν οὖν 
τις ϑδελήσῃ τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ μετ- 
ανοῆσαι διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματός 
μου [τοῦ] πιστεύειν ἐπὶ τὸν 
ϑεόν, ἀφεδήσονται αὐτῷ αἱ 


ἁμαρτίαι: μετὰ δώδεκα [8] 
ἔτη ἐξέλϑετε εἰς τὸν κόσ- 
μον μή τις εἴπῃ οὐκ ἠκού- 
σαμεν. 

4 Clem. Al. Strom. αν. 8 41: ὥς τινες 
τῶν μετατιϑέντων τὰ εὐαγγέλια 
Μακάριοι, φησίν, οἱ δεδιωγμ έ- 
νοι ὑπὺ τῆς δικαιοσύνης 
ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἔσονται τέλειοι. 
καὶ μακάριοι οἱ δεδιωγμένοι 
ἕνεκα ἐμοῦ ὅτι ἕξουσι τόπον 
ὅπου οὐ διωχϑήσονται. 

5 Athenag. Legat. 88:.. «. ἡμῖν λέγ- 
οντος τοῦ λόγου Ἐάν τις διὰ 
τοῦτο ἐκ δευτέρου καταφι- 
λήσῃ ὅτι ἣἢρεσεν αὐτῷ -- καὶ 
ἐπιφέροντος Οὕτως οὖν ἀκριβώ- 
σασϑαι τὸ φίλημα (μᾶλλον δὲ 
τὸ προσκύνημα) δεῖ, ὡς εἴπου 
μικρὸν τῇ διανοίᾳ παραδο- 
λωϑείη, ἔξω ἡμᾶς τῆς αἰω- 
νίον τιϑέντος ζωῆς. 

6 This very singular saying, which is 
evidently of Hebrew origin, from the 
gender of Spirit (uach), is quoted sev- 
eral times. Orig. In Joann. Tom. It. 
§6f.: Ἐὰν δὲ προσίεταί τις τὸ Kaw 


452 


8. [Christ] said: Many shall come in my name. . . 
And, Take heed to fulse prophets... . . 


be schisms and heresies. 


ON THE APOCRYPHAL TRADITIONS 


. And, There shall 


9. [It is said] in Scripture: Zhe just shall fall seven times, and shall rise 


again.? Cf, Luke xvii. 4. 


10. It is said in the Gospel according to Luke: He to whom more is for- 


given lov.s more; and he to whom less is forgiven loves little.% 


vil. 47. 


Cf. Luke 


11. [Christ said] Z often desired to hear one of these words, and had not 


one to tell me.* 


The traditional facts relative to the Gospel history, which present the 
slightest semblance of truth, are even fewer than the 


2. Traditional 


feats traditional words. 


Justin Martyr gives some details 


which appear to be mere deductions from the received 
history, or translations of prophecy into history. Such are the notices 
that the mother of the Lord was of the family of David, that the Lord 


Ἑ βραίους εὐαγγέλιον, ἔνϑα αὐτὸς 6 
Σωτήρ φησιν ἄρτι ἔλαβέ με ἡἣ 
μήτηρ μοῦ, τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα, 
ἐν μιᾷ τῶν τριχῶν μου, καὶ 
ἀπήνεγκέ με εἰς τὸ ὄρος τὸ 
μέγα OaBadp. Id. Hom. in Jerem. 
xv. 4: εἰ δέ τις παραδέχεται τὸ 
ἄρτι ἔλαβε με; .τ.λ. Hieron. 
In Mich. σαι. 6: ... ααἱ. .. crediderit 
Eyangelio quod secundum Hebrzos 
editum nuper transtulimus, in quo ex 
persona Salvatoris dicitur Modo tulit 
me mater mea, Sanctus Spiritus, in 
uno capillorum meorum... Id. In Isai. 
xv. 11: ...in Evangelio quod juxta 
Hebreos scriptum Nazarezi lectitant, 
Dominus loquitur Jodo me tulit, etc. 
Id. In Ezech. xvi. 18: In Evangelio 
Hebrrorum quod lectitant Nazarzi, 
Salyator inducitur loquens J/odo me 
arripuit mater mea, Spiritus Sanctus. 
Cf. Fabricius, Cod. Apocr. N. T. 361, n.; 
Bp. Pearson, On the Creed, p. 166. 

1 Just. M. Dial, § 85, p. 253 Β: εἶπε 
γάρ... «Ἔσονται σχίσματα 
καὶ αἱρέσει 5. This sentence seems 
to have been formed from the sense of 
our Lord’s words and the form of 1 Cor. 
xi. 18,19. It occurs in a transitional 
shape in Clem. Hom. xvi. 21. Justin, 
however, quotes it as an independent 
saying. 

The passage quoted by Hegesippus 
(Phot. Cod. 282, p. 472; Frag. ap. 


Routh, 1. p. 219) seems to be only a 
citation from memory of Matt. xiii. 16. 
See also Tischdf. ad Matt. vii. 22. 

The words quoted by Origen from 
Celsus (6. Cels. vit. 15, 16) do not 
seem to make any pretensions to being 
words of the Lord (Anger, p. xxvii. n). 
The whole passage is extremely ob- 
scure. 


2 [Hipp.] adv. Her. (Naass.) V. 7, p- 
102: τοῦτο ἐστὶ Td εἰρημένον, φησίν; 
ἐν τῇ γραφῇ Ἑπτάκις πεσεῖται 
ὁ δίκαιος καὶ ἀναστήσεται. 


8 Cypr. Test. 111. 116: In Evangelio 
cata Lucam Cui plus dimittitur, plus 
diligit; et cui minus [pusillum] dimit- 
tiur, modicum diligit. Cf. Iren. 111. 
20, 2. 

To these passages may be added the 
clause appended by D, and numerous 
Latin authorities, to Mark xiii. 2: καὶ 
διὰ τριῶν ἡμερῶν ἄλλος ἀναστήσεται 
ἄνευ χειρῶν. Compare also p. 424, 
n. 3. 

4 Marcos. ap. Iren. 1. 20, 2:... ἐν 
τῷ εἰρηκέναι Πολλάκις ἐπεὺὼ ὑ- 
μησα ἀκοῦσαι ἕνα τῶν λό- 
γων τούτων καὶ οὐκ ἔσχον 
τὸν ἐροῦντα. I think that ἐπε- 
Svunoa was an early corruption for 
ἐπεϑύμησαν, and that the reference is 
to Matt. xiii. 17. Ἐπεϑύμησα seems to 
be inconsistent with the context. 


OF TIE LORD’S WORDS AND WORKS. 453 


was born in a cave, that the wise men came from Arabia, that the Lord’s 
miracles were attributed to magic, that the ass which the 
disciples brought for Him was found tied toa vine. Of, 
a similar kind are the statements made by Celsus, that the person of the 
Lord was “little and ill-favored (δυσειδές) and ignoble,” and that His 
mother wrought with her own hands ;? and those which occur in the 
Clementines, that John the Baptist (like the Moon) had thirty disci- 
ples, as our Lord (the Sun) had twelve, and that the ministry of Christ 
began at the spring solstice* Some traditions had a wider currency, 
though they may have had a like origin, as that the Baptism was ac- 
companied by the appearance of a bright fire or light, and the words, 
“Thou art my Son: This day have I begotten Thee.’ ὃ One, which appears 
in many different forms, represents our Lord as commanding His disci- 
ples to remain for twelve years at Jerusalem;® another relates that 
He remained with them eighteen months after the Resurrection,’ and 
gave fresh revelations which were preserved in esoteric books. The ten- 
dency to exaggeration appears in the story of the death of Judas given 
on the authority of Papias ; and, since it is as natural to define as to ex- 
ageerate, names were affixed to many of the chief persons who are name- 
less in the Gospel history.* Of the domestic life of the Lord one trait 
only, except such as are obviously fabulous,? has been preserved, which 
from its simplicity may be true, where Justin says that ‘“‘ ploughs and 
yokes were preserved, which Christ wrought while among men.” 10. Some 
details are added to narratives of the Gospels, as in the notice that “ the 
man with a withered hand” was a mason, and that a ‘ vast lintel of the 
Temple” was shattered by the earthquake at the Cru- 
cifixion; but the history of the appearance of the Lord 
to St. James is the only independent record of a fact known to have 
taken place which is not mentioned in the Gospels.1 


Yet cf. Luc. i. 27. 


t. Cor. xv. 7. 


1 Just. M. Dial. 48, 78, 69. 

2 Cels. ap. Orig. ὁ. Cels. vi. 75; τ. 28. 

3 Clem. Hom. τι. 28. 

4 Clem. Hom. τ. 6 f. 

5 Cf. p. 435, n. 2; p. 438. 

6 Clem. Al. Strom. vi. § 43:... μετὰ 
δώδεκα ἔτη ἐξέλϑετε εἰς τὸν κόσμον 
μὴ τὶς εἴπῃ Οὐκ ἠκούσαμεν. Cf. Apol- 
lon. ap. Euseb. H. Ε.ν. 18 (ὡς ἐκ παρα- 
δόσεως). The Πίστις Σοφία (Anger, p. 
xiii.) gives eleven (7) years. 

7 Valentiniani ap. Iren. 1. 8, 2. 

8 Examples of this appear in the Ver- 
sions of the Gospels. Thus the two 
thieves are called in Matt. xxvii. 88, 
89, Zoatham and Camma; in Mark xy. 
27, Zoathan and Chammatha, by Colb. 
Par.; and in Luke xxiii. 32, Joathas 
and Maggatras, by Rhedig. In Luke 


xxiv 18, the name Emmaus by a va- 
riety of changes is made to serve as the 
name of one of the disciples. 

Compare also Hom. Clem. τι. 19, 
Ἰούστα τις ἐν ἡμῖν ἐστὶν Συροφοινίκισ- 
σα, Κ.- τ. A. (Matt. xv. 22). Even the 
Rich man in Luke (xvi. 19) receives a 
name: Nineve (Sahid. and Schol. Gr.). 

9 The famous story of the Alphabet 
may deserve notice from the early date 
at which it was current: Iren. 1. 20, 1. 
Cf. Thilo, Cod. Apocr. p. 290 ff. Other 
early legends occur in Justin, Gnost. 
ap. [Hippol.] Philos. v. p. 156. 

10 Just. M. Dial. ο. 88. 

11 All these examples are taken from 
the Gospel according to the Hebrews, 
Cf. pp. 435 f. 

One of the early additions to the last 


454 ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 


ASE-PEN.D DX «Ds 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 
Καπηλεύοντες τὸν λόγον τοῦ Ocov. — ἃ Cor. τι. 17. 


THE acts and sayings attributed to the Lord, which have been preserved 
elsewhere than by the Evangelists, have been already noticed : it still re- 
mains for us to collect the materials which illustrate the general character 
and contents of those early writings which for a time partially occupied 
the place or disputed the claims of the canonical Gospels. As might have 
been anticipated, these “ apocryphal Gospels ” present two great types, one 
Judaizing, the other Pauline. The former type is preserved in several spe- 
cific forms which correspond to differences in the Judaizing sects — The 
Gospel according to the Hebrews (i), The Ebionite Gospel (ii), The Clemen- 
tine Gospel (iii) : the latter in The Gospel of Marcion (iv). It would carry 
us away from our immediate subject to discuss how far the first three 
Gospels are to be regarded as having a distinct existence as written rec- 
ords, but I cannot but believe that too little weight is allowed ordinarily to 
the power of oral tradition to mould and propagate modified forms of 
isolated passages. The fragments themselves will show on what a narrow 
basis many ingenious theories have been built. One point, however, seems 
beyond all reasonable doubt, that the synoptic Gospels give a simpler and 
therefore an earlier form of the common narratives. This follows at once 
from a general view of the fragments; and argument of detail would be 
of little avail against a critic who could maintain that the Gospel according 
to the Hebrews or the Gospel of Marcion are respectively the originals of 
St. Matthew and St. Luke. 


I. Tue Gospen accorpinc ΤῸ THE Heprews (τὸ καϑ᾽ Ἑβραίους 
εὐαγγέλιον. Clem. Alex.; Orig. Evangelium secundum (juxta) Hebraos. 
Hieron.), 

Several passages of this Gospel have been already quoted, for which a 
simple reference is sufficient: the remaining fragments are given at length. 


1. Cf. p. 449, num. 17. 
3. Cf. p. 451, nun. 7. 
5. Cf. p. 448, nwm. 16. 


chapter of St. Mark deserves notice 
from its singularity. It is preserved 
by Jerome: In quibusdam exemplari- 
bus et maxime in Grecis codicibus 
juxta Marcum in fine ejus Evangelii 
scribitur: Postea cum occubuissent un- 
decim, apparuit eis Jesus et exprobravit 
incredulitatem et duritiam cordis eo- 
rum, quia his qui yiderant eum resur- 


2. Cf. p. 447, num. ἢ. 
4. Cf. p. 448, n. 5. 
6. Cf. p. 449, num. 20. 


gentem non crediderunt (Mare. xvi. 14). 
Et illi satisfaciebant dicentes: Seculum 
istud iniquitatis et incredulitatis sub- 
stantia est (one MS. sub Satana est), 
que non sinit per immundos spiritus 
veram Dei apprehendi virtutem: id- 
circo jam nune reyela justitiam tuam 
(Adv. Pelag. τι. § 15). 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 455 

7. The Gospel contained a history of “a woman who was accused of 
many sins before the Lord,” which was related also by Papias.' 

8. It is written in a Gospel, which is styled “ according to the He- 
brews,” if any pleases to receive it, not as an authority, but as an illustra- 
tion of the subject before us. Another rich man said to Him, Master, what 
good thing shall I do to live? He said to him, Fulfil the law and the prophets. 
He answered Him, I have fulfilled them. He said to him, Go, sell all that thou 
possessest, and distribute to the poor, andcome, follow me. But the rich man be- 
gan to scratch his head, and it did not please him. And the Lord said to him, 
How sayest thou, I have fulfilled the law and the prophets, since it is written 
in the law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ; and lo! many of thy breth- 
ren, sons of Abraham, are clothed in filth, dying of hunger ; and thy house is 
full of many goods, and nothing at all goes out of it to then? And He turned 
and said to Simon His disciple, who was sitting by Him, Simon, son of Jonas, 
it is casier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man [to enter] 
into the kingdom of heaven.” 

9, The Gospel entitled ‘according to the Hebrews,’ which I lately 
translated into Greek and Latin, and which Origen often quotes, contains 
the following narrative after the Resurrection. Now the Lord, when He 
had given the cloth to the servant of the priest, went to James and appeared to 
him. For James had taken an oath that he would not eat bread from that 
hour on which he had drunk the cup of the Lord, till he saw Him risen from 
the dead. Again, a little afterwards, the Lord says, Bring a table and 
bread. Immediately, it is added, He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and 
gave it to James the Just, and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread, for the 
Son of Man has risen from the dead.® 

10. In the Gospel according to the Hebrews . . . there is the following 
passage : So, the mother of the Lord and His brethren said to Him: John the 
Baptist is baptizing for the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized by 


1 Euseb. H. Ε. ut. 89: ἐκτέϑειται δὲ 
[6 Παπίας] καὶ ἄλλην ἱστορίαν περὶ 


8 Hieron. de Vir. Ilustr. ττ.: Evan- 
gelium quoque quod appellatur secun- 


γυναικὸς ἐπὶ πολλαῖς ἁμαρτίαις διαβ- 
ληϑείσης (de muliere adultera, Ruf.) 
ἐπὶ τοῦ κυρίου, ἣν τὸ Kad Ἑ βραίους 
εὐαγγέλιον περιέχει. There is no 
reason to suppose that Papias derived 
the history from the Hebrew Gospel, 
and not from tradition. The narrative 
may (as Rufinus implies) be the same as 
the pericope, John viii. 1-1]. Cf. Fa- 
bricius, Cod. Apocr. N. T. p. 356 n. 

2 This passage is given in the Latin 
version (not by Rufinus. Cf. Huet, Ori- 
geniana, U1. 8, 12) of Origen’s commen- 
tary on St. Matthew (Tom. xvi. § 14). 
The passage is not found in any Greek 
MS. The text is printed by Tischen- 
Corf on Matt. xix. 15. 


dum Hebreos, et ame nuper in Grecum 
Latinumque sermonem translatum est, 
quo et Origenes sepe utitur, post resur- 
rectionem Salyatoris refert: Dominus 
autem cum dedisset sindonem servo sa- 
cerdotis, ivit ad Jacobum et apparuit 
ei. Juraverat enin Jacobus se non 
comesturum panem ab illa hora qua 
biberat calicem Domini, donec viderct 
eum resurgentem a dormientibus (Gr. 
ἀναστάντα ἐκ νεκρῶν). Rursusque 
post paullulum: Aferte, ait Dominus, 
mensam et panem. Statimque additur: 
Tulit panem et benedixit ae fregit et 
dedit Jacobo justo, et dixit ei: Frater 
mi, comede panem tuum, quia resur- 
revit Filius hominis a dormientibus. 


456 ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 


him. But He saidto them: What sin have I committed that I should go and 
be baptized by him? unless perchance this very word which I have spoken is 
[a sin of ] ignorance. 

11. According to the Gospel written in Hebrew which the Nazarenes 
used (it is said): Zhe Holy Spirit with full stream shall come down upon 
Him (the branch of Jesse) . . . . Moreover, in the Gospel of which I made 
mention above, we find this written: Now it came to pass when the Lord 
had come up out of the water, the Holy Spirit with full stream came down and 
rested upon Him, and said to Him: My Son, in all the prophets I was wait- 
ing for Thee, that thou shouldest come, and I might rest in Thee. For Thou 


art my rest; Thouart my Firstborn Son, who reignest forever.” 
12. Bethlehem of Judea... this is an error of the copyist: for I think 
that the word given originally by the Evangelist, as we read in the He- 


brew, was Judah, not Judea3 


13. In the Gospel entitled accordiny to the Hebrews for panis supersub- 
stantialis (of the Latin version, Matt. vi. 11), I found makar, which 


means for the morrow.* 


14, In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use, which I 


1 Hieron. adv, Pelag. 111. 2: In Evan- 
gelio juata Hebrwos, quod Chaldaico 
quidem Syroque sermone sed Hebraicis 
litteris scriptum est, quo utuntur usque 
hodie Nazareni secundum Apostolos, 
sive, ut plerique autumant, juxta Mat- 
theum, quod et in Cxsariensi habetur 
bibliotheca, narrat historia: Hcece Ma- 
ter Domini et fratres ejus dicebant ei: 
Joannes Baptista baptizat in remissi- 
onem peccatorum ; eamus et baptizemur 
abeo. Dixit autem eis; Quid peccavi 
ut vadam et baptizer ab eo? nisi forte 
hoc ipsum quod dixiignorantia est. Et 
in eodem yolumine: Si peceaverit, in- 
quit, frater tuus in verbo, etc. (cf. p. 
427 n.). 

This narrative was found also in the 
Preaching of Paul (or of Peter, or of 
Peicr and Paul): . . . in quo libro 
contra omnes scripturas et de peccato 
proprio confitentem invenies Christum, 
qui solus omnino nihil deliquit, et ad 
accipiendum Joannis baptisma pzne 
invitum a matre sua Maria esse com- 
pulsum, Item cum baptizaretur ignem 
super aquam esse visum, quod in Evan- 
gelio nullo est scriptum . . . (Auct. De 
Rebaptismate, ¢. XV1I.). 

I have not noticed any passage in 
which the mention of a light at the 


Baptism is referred to the Gospel ac- 
cording to the Hebrews, though the cir- 
cumstance was described in the Ebion- 
ite Gospel. 


2Hieron. Comm. in Isai. IV. XI. 2: 
... Juxta Evangelium quod Hebrxo 
sermone conscriptum legunt Nazarei: 
Descendit super eum omnis fons Spirit- 
us Sancti. . . Porro in Evangelio, 
cujus supra fecimus mentionem, hxc 
scripta reperimus: Lactum est autem 
cum ascendisset Dominus de aqua, 
descendit fons omnis Spiritus Sancti 
et requievit super eum et dixit illi: Filt 
mi, in omnibus prophetis expectabam 
te, ut venires et requiescerem in te. Tu 
es enim requies mea; tues filius meus 
primogenitus qui regnas in sempi- 
ternum. 


3 Hieron. ad Matt. 11. 5: Bethlehem 
Judee ... Librariorum hic error est. 
Putamus enim ab Evangelista primum 
editum, sicut in ipso Hebraico legimus, 
Jude non Judee. 


4 Nieron. ad Matt. v1.11: In Evan- 
gelio quod appellatur secundum He- 
breos pro supersubstantiali pane re- 
peri Mahar, quod dicitur crastinum; 
ut sit sensus: Panem nostrum crasti- 
num (id est futurum) da nobis hodie. 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 457 


lately translated from the Hebrew into Greek, and which is called by very 
many the original Gospel of Matthew, the man with the withered hand is 
described as a mason, who sought the help (of Christ) with words to this 
effect : I was a mason, secking a livelihoud by the labor of my hands. I pray 
Thee, Jesus, to restore to me my health, that I may not beg my bread in dis- 
grace.} 

15. In the Gospel used by the Nazarenes I find the son of Jehoida for 
the son of Barachias.? 

16. The name Barabbas is interpreted in the Gospel styled according to 
the Hebrews as Son of their master.2.... 

17. In the Gospel of which I have often made mention, we read that 
a lintel of the Temple of vast size was broken asunder.* 


Il. Tue Gospet or THE EBIONITES. 

Epiphanius speaks of the Nazarenes as “having the Gospel according 
to Matthew in a most complete form, in Hebrew,” though he immediately ~ 
adds that he does not know whether “they removed the genealogies from 
Abraham to Christ.”5 In contrast with this statement he says that the 
Ebionites had a Gospel “ called the Gospel according to Matthew, not 
entire and perfectly complete, but falsified and mutilated, which they call 
the Hebrew Gospel.” ® He then gives several passages professedly taken 


1 Hieron. ad Mati. x11. 13: In Evan- 
gelio quo utuntur Nazareni et Ebion- 
ite, quod nuper in Grecum de Hebreo 
sermone transtulimus, et quod vocatur | 
aplerisque Matthai authenticum, homo 
iste qui aridam habet manum, c#men- 
tarius scribitur, istiusmodi vocibus 
auxilium precans: Cementarius eram, 
manibus victum queritans. Precor te, 
Jesu, ut mihi restituas sanitatem ne 
turpitur mendicem cibos. 

2 Hieron. ad Matt. xxi. 35: In 
Eyangelio quo utuntur Nazareni pro 
Jjilio Barachie, filum Joiade reperimus 
scriptum. 

8 Hieron. ad Matt. xxvii. 16: Iste 
(Barabbas) in Eyangelio quod scribitur 
juxta Hebreos, filius magistri eorum 
interpretatur. ... 

4 Hieron. ad Matt. xxvit. 51: In 
Evangelio cujus sepe facimus menti- 
onem, superliminare templi infinite 
magnitudinis fractum esse atque divi- 
sum legimus. Cf. Ep.ad Hedib. ντιτ. 
1: In Evangelio autem quod Hebraicis 
litteris scriptum est, legimus, non velum 
templi scissum sed superliminare tem- 
pli mire magnitudinis corruisse. I see 


θυ 


no reason for referring the quotation 
given from Hegesippus (cf. p. 480, 7.) to 
the Gospel according to the Hebrews, 
though he used it: Euseb. H. Ε΄. Iv. 
22 (cf. Hist. of N. JT. Canon, pp. 233, 
284). 

So again Jerome refers to his He- 
brew friends and not toa Hebrew Gos- 
pel in Comm. in Hab. 11. 3 (audivi He- 
breum .. . disserere); Comm. in Isai. 
x1. 1 (eruditi Hebreeorum), and no con- 
clusion can be drawn from those pas- 
sages as to the contents of the Gospel 
according to the Hebrews. 

5 Epiph. Her. xx1x. 9, p.124: ἔχουσι 
δὲ τὸ κατὰ Ματϑαῖον εὐαγγέλιον πλη- 
ρέστατον Ἑ βραϊστί. παρ᾽ αὑτοῖς γὰρ 
σαφῶς τοῦτο, καϑὼς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐγράφη 
Ἑβραϊκοῖς γράμμασιν ἔτι σώζεται. 
οὐκ οἶδα δὲ εἰ καὶ τὰς γενεαλογίας τὰς 
ἀπὸ τοῦ ᾿Αβραὰμ ἄχρι Χριστοῦ περι- 
εἴλον. 

6 Epiph. Har. xxx. 18, p. 137: ἐν τῷ 
γοῦν παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς εὐαγγελίῳ κατὰ Ματ- 
ϑαῖον ὀνομαζομένῳ, οὐχ ὅλῳ δὲ πλη- 
ρεστάτῳ, ἀλλὰ νενοϑευμένῳ καὶ 
ἠκρωτηριασμένῳ, Ἑ βραϊκὸν δὲ τοῦτο 
καλοῦσιν, ἐμφέρεται, κ. τ. Δ. 


458 ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 

from this Gospel, but they present so many inconsistencies that it is evi- 
dent that they cannot have belonged originally to the same book. One 
fragment contains a narrative of the Baptism, with the addition of apoc- 
ryphal details, which gained a wide currency at a very early time. An- 
other gives a saying of the Lord which may have been included in the 
original Ebionite Gospel. Of the remaining pieces one belongs to a writ- 
ing like the Clementines, in which the simple form of history was ex- 
changed for a didactic form. It is possible that this incongruous element 
had been incorporated in the Gospel in the time of Epiphanius; or he 
may have derived his information from different sources. It is only neces- 
sary to notice that the fragments were not of the same origin. 

1. [In the Ebionite Gospel] the following passage occurs: There 
came a man by name Jesus, and He was about thirty years old, who 
chose us. And when He came to Capernaum He entered into the house 
of Simon, who was surnamed Peter, and opened his mouth and said: 
As I passed along the lake of Tiberias, I chose John and James, sons of 
Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew, and Thaddeus, and Simon Zelotes, 
and Judas Iscariot; and thee, Matthew, I called as thou wert sitting at 
the receipt of custom, and thou followedstme. You, then, I wish to be 
twelve apostles, for a testimony to Israel. 

2, And John came baptizing, and Pharisees went out to him and were 
baptized, and all Jerusalem. And John had raiment of camels’ hair, and 
a girdle of skin about his loins; and his food (the Gospel says) ‘‘ was 
wild honey, the taste of which was the taste of manna, like a honey-cake 
steeped in oil,’ —that they may convert the word of truth into a lie, and 
put “ honey-cakes” (éyxpidas) for “locusts ” (axpldas).? 

3. The beginning of their Gospel is this: It came to pass in the days 
of Herod, king of Juda, that John came baptizing, with a baptism of 
repentance, in the river Jordan, who was said to be of the race of Aaron 
the priest, a son of Zachariah and Elizabeth, and all went out to him.’ 


U ΄“ς 3 , ΓΕ. 
μαρτύριον τοῦ ᾿Ἰσραήλ. καὶ ἐγένετο 
Ἰωάννης, K. τ. A. 

2 Epiph. l.c.: καὶ ἐγένετο ᾿Ιωάννης 


1 Epiph. Her. 18, p. 137: ἐν τῷ παρ᾽ 
αὐτοῖς εὐαγγελίῳ . . . ἐμφέρεται ὅτι 
ἐγένετό τις ἀνὴρ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦς, καὶ 


αὐτὸς ὡς ἐτῶν τριάκοντα, ὃς ἐξελέξατο 
“ἡμᾶς. καὶ ἐλϑὼν εἰς Καφαρναοὺμ. εἰσ- 
ἤλδεν εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν Σίμωνος τοῦ ἐπικ- 
ληϑέντος Πέτρου, καὶ ἀνοίξας τὸ στόμα 
αὐτοῦ εἶπε Παρερχόμενος παρὰ τὴν 
λίμνην Τιβηριάδος ἐξελεξάμην ᾿Ιωάν- 
ynv καὶ Ἰάκωβον υἱοὺς Ζεβεδαίου καὶ 
Σίμωνα τὸν Ζηλωτήν καὶ ᾿Ιούδαν τὸν 
Ἰσκαριώτην: καί σε τὸν Ματϑαῖον 
καϑεζόμενον ἐπὶ τοῦ τελωνίου ἐκά- 
λεσα καὶ ἠκολούϑησάς μοι: ὑμᾶς οὖν 
βούλυμαι εἶναι δεκαδύο ἀποστόλους εἰς 

8 Epiph. /. 6. 
(Zacharias, Elizabeth). 


βαπτίζων καὶ ἐξῆλϑον πρὸς αὐτὸν Φαρ- 
trator καὶ ἐβαπτίσϑησαν καὶ πᾶσα Ἵερ- 
οσόλυμα. καὶ εἶχεν ὁ ᾿Ιωάννης ἔνδυμα 
ἀπὸ τριχῶν καμήλου καὶ (ζώνην δερ- 
ματίνην περὶ τὴν ὀσφὺν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸ 
βρῶμα αὐτοῦ, φησί, HEAL ἄγριον, οὗ a 
γεῦσις ἣν τοῦ μάννα, ὡς ἐγκρὶς ἐν 
ἐλαίῳ, ἵνα δῆϑεν μεταστρέψωσι τὸν 
τῆς ἀληδϑείας λόγον εἰς ψεῦδος καὶ 
ἀντὶ ἀκρίδων ποιήσωσιν ἐγκρίδας ἐν 
μέλιτι. The yariation shows that the 
Gospel was in Greek. 


This passage has apparently been interpolated from St. Luke 
In the following chapter Epiphanius again quotes the 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 459 

4. And after a long interval it adds, that “when the people were bap- 
tized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John. And when He came 
up from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy Spirit 
of God in the form of a dove, which came down and came upon him.! 
And a voice came from heaven, saying: Thou art my beloved Son; in 
Thee I am well pleased. And again: To-day have I begotten Thee.? 
And immediately a great light shone round about the place ;? and John, 
when he saw it (the narrative continues), says to Jesus: Who art thou, 
Lord? And again a voice came from heaven to him [John] ; This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And then (it continues) John 
fell down before Him, and said: I beseech thee, Lord, do thou baptize 


me. But he forbade him, saying, Suffer it: for thus it is becoming that 
all things be fulfiled.’’ 4 


beginning of the Gospel. A comparison of the two quotations illustrates the 
carelessness of Epiphanius and the manner in which the text was altered. 


6.18: ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἡρώδου ς.14: ἐγένετο ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Ἡρώδου 


τοῦ βασιλέως τῆς Ιουδαίας 


ἦλϑεν Ιωάννης 

βαπτίζων βάπτισμα μετονοίας 

ἐν τῷ ᾿Ιορδάνῃ ποταμῷ, 

ὃς ἐλέγετο εἶναι ex γένους ᾿Ααρὼν 

τοῦ ἀρχιερέως καὶ ἐξήρχοντο πρὸς 
αὐτὸν πάντες. 


βασιλέως τῆς Ιουδαίας 

ἐπὶ ἀρχιερέως Καϊάφα 

HAE τις Ἰωάννης ὀνόματι 
βαπτίζων βάπτισμα μετανοίας 
ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ ᾿Ιορδάνῃ, 

καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς. 


The insertion of ποταμῷ is worthy of notice. The word is doubtful in Matt. 


111. 6, but certain in Mark i. 5. 


1 The difference of this clause from 
the corresponding clause in the Canon- 
ical Gospel is full of meaning. There 
the Spirit descends (καταβαῖνον) as a 
Dove; here it is as a Dove which came 
down (kaTeAdovons). 

2 These words are also quoted as used 
at the Baptism by Justin and Hilary; 
and are actually given as part of the 
text in Luke iii. 22, in the Codex Berne 
(D), and some Latin copies. 

8 This detail is added in two Latin 
MSS. ( Vercell. a, Sengerm. gi): Et cum 
baptizaretur (Jesus gi) lumen ingens 
(magnum gi) circumfulsit (fulgebat gi) 
de aqua, ita ut timerent omnes qui ad- 
venerant (qui congregati erant gi), Cf. 
Just. M. Dial. 88; Sibyll. Orac. vir. 
82—84. 

It is worthy of remark that in an 
addition which occurs in another Latin 
MS. (Bobb. k), a miraculous (?) light is 


connected with the resurrection: Mark 
xvi. 4, Subito autem ad horam tertiam 
tenebre diet (? d. ten.) facte sunt per 
totum orbem terre, et descenderunt de 
celis angeli, et surgentes] in claritate 
vist Det simul ascenderunt cum eo, et 
continuo lux facta est. 

4 Epiph. Her. xxx. 18, p. 188: καὶ 
μετὰ τὸ εἰπεῖν πολλὰ ἐπιφέρει ὅτι τοῦ 
λαοῦ βαπτισϑέντος FASE καὶ Ἰησοῦς 
καὶ ἐβαπτίσϑη ὑπὸ τοῦ ᾿Ιωάννου. καὶ 
ὡς ἀνῆλδεν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕδατος ἠνοίγησαν 
οἱ οὐρανοὶ καὶ εἶδε τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ δεοῦ 
τὸ ἅγιον ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς κατελ- 
δούσης καὶ εἰσελϑούσης εἰς αὐτόν: καὶ 
φωνὴ ἐγένετο ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ λέγουσα, 
Σύ μου εἶ ὁ υἱὸς ὁ ἀγαπητός, ἐν σοὶ ηὐδό- 
Knoa καὶ πάλιν Ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννη- 
κά σε. Καὶ εὐϑδὺς περιέλαμψε τὸν τόπον 
φῶς μέγα. ὃν (1. ὃ) ἰδών, φησίν, ὁ Ἰωάν- 
uns λέγει αὐτῷ Σύ, τίς εἶ Κύριε; καὶ πά- 
λιν φωνὴ ἔξ οὐρανοῦ πρὸς αὐτόν, Οὗ- 


460 ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 

5. Cf. p. 447, No. 8. 

6. [In the account of the Last Supper they add the interrogative and 
the word flesh], saying: Have I earnestly desired to eat this flesh, the 
Passover, with you 11 

7. They say, according to their absurd argument: It is sufficient for 
the disciple to be as his Master .2 


WL Tuer Gosrer or tue CLEMENTINE Homi ies. 


The numerous quotations which occur in the Clementine Homilies are 
generally allowed to furnish another form of the Ebionite Gospel. It 
may, however, be very fairly questioned whether the peculiarities which 
these quotations exhibit may not be more properly referred to oral tradi- 
tion or to errors of memory than to any one written source. With one or 
two exceptions, the Homilies contain no sayings of the Lord which are 
not either mere duplicates of passages in the Gospels or deductions which 
follow directly from them. The subjoined list contains, I believe, a 
complete list of the passages quoted in the Homilies. The quotations 
marked by Italics are verbal in the main; the remainder generally give 
the sense of the corresponding passage of the canonical Gospel in other 
words.’ 


Matt. v. 3. . Cf. Hom. xv. 10: 6 διδάσκαλος ἡμῶν πιστοὺς πένητας 
ἐμακάρισεν. 

πος . Cf. Hom. xvii. 7: ἵνα οἱ καθαροὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτὸν ἰδεῖν 
δυνηϑῶσιν. ᾿ 

Vaehlivis te . Hom. iii. 51: οὐκ ἦλϑδον κ. τ. ν. 


xxiv. 35; v.18, om. iii. 51: 6 οὐ p.— παρελ. ἰῶτα ἕν ---- τ. νόμου. 


νυ. 34,35. . . . Hom. iii. 56: μὴ ὀμόσητε τὸν οὐρ. ----ὑποπόδ. τ. π. 


av. ἐ. 
. Hom. iii. 55; xix. 2: ἔστω tu. τὸ ναὶ ναί, (καὶ) τὸ οὗ 


ὍΣ 2)(Cor ae 17. 


ΟΕ ΤῸΝ τὰ 
οὔ: τὸ γὰρ π. --- πον. ἐ. 

ΠΟΙ; ΕΟ" Ἀν, De 

. ΟἹ Hom: 111; 19. 


v. 39-41... 
Visto. pe 


τός ἐστιν ὃ vids μου 6 ἀγαπητός, ἐφ᾽ 
ὃν ηὐδόκησα. Kal τότε, φησίν, 6 
> , » > a wv. / 
Iwavyns προςσπεσὼν αὑτῷ ἔλεγε Δέο- 

ῇ , / ς οἷ 
pat σου Κύριε, σύ με βάπτισον. 6 δὲ 
ἐκῷλυεν αὐτῷ λέγων “Apes, ὅτε οὕτως 
ἐστὶ πρέπον πληρωδῆναι πάντα. 

1 Epiph. Her. xxx. 22, p.146: ἐποίη- 
cay... αὐτὸν λέγοντα Μὴ ἐπιϑυ- 
μίᾳ ἐπεδύμησα κρέας τοῦτο 
τὸ Πάσχα φαγεῖν μεδ᾽ ὑμῶν. 
Immediately below Epiphanius quotes 
the passage: Μὴ ἐπιϑυμίᾳ ἐπεϑύμησα 
τοῦτο τὸ Πάσχα κρέας φαγεῖν ped 
« Ha) - 
ὑμῶν. The true reading was probably 
κρέας τοῦτο. or τοῦτο τὸ κρέας. 


2 Epiph. Her. xxx. 26, p. 151; φασὶ 
yap κατὰ τὸν ἐκείνων ληρώδη λόγον 
᾿Αρκετὸν τῷ μαϑητῇ εἶναι ὡς ὁ διδάσ- 
kados. If it were not that Epiphanius 
quotes the passage again in the same 
form (ἢ 30, p. 160), it would seem that 
the change {εἶναι for ἵνα γένηται) was 
simply an error of his. 


8 The Clementine quotations are 
printed in a convenient form by Cred- 
ner, Beitrage, 1. pp. 284 ff. 

Ihave discussed the quotations of 
Justin M. elsewhere: Hist. of N. T. 
Canon, pp. 188 ff. 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPIIAL GOSPELS. 461 


Matt. v.45. . . Hom. iu. 57. Cf. xii. 26; xviii. 2. 

ls Gay Ar nad a ALON. ILO. 

vi. 82.8. . . . Hom. iii. 55; oidev yap—am. πρὶν αὐτὸν akia- 
σητε. 

vi. 13. . . . .« Hom. xix. 2: p.—T. mov. 

Mie 2. aw «> OF, Hom, xvii 16. 

ὙΠ 7. . . . . Hom. iii. 52: Cyr. Καὶ εὑρίσκετε: 

vii. 9-11. . . . Hom. iii. 56: τίνα αἰτήσει vi. ἄρτον ---- ἢ καὶ ixds.— 
6 π. 6. 5 οὐράνιος --- τοῖς αἰτουμένοις αὐτὸν καὶ 
τοῖς ποιοῦσιν τὸ ϑέλημα αὐτοῦ. 

vii. 12,. . . . Cf. Hom. xii. 82: ὃ ϑέλει ἑαυτῷ ϑέλει καὶ τῷ πλησίον. 
Cf. vii. 4. 

vii. 13,14. . . Hom. xviii. 17. 

Vitel G0. .-, Hom.-vil. 15,06. 

vii. 21... . . Cf Hom. viii. 7: ti pe λέγεις, ύριε, κύριε, καὶ ov 
ποιεῖς ἃ λέγω. 

ὙΠ Δ sete. 6 HOM. Vill. 4. 

viii. 5-11.. . . Cf. Hom. ix. 21. 

Vill 245 5 hye. ς ΟἹ Hom: xix. 14. 

τε 5}: Ἐς ΟΕ Hom: xix. 14. 

ix. 12... . . . Hom. iii. 56: ὁ Θεὸς ἔλεος ϑέλει καὶ οὐ ϑυσίαν, ἐπιγνω- 

σιν αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐχ ὁλοκαυτώματα (Hos. vi. θ). 
«ον Hom. iii. 7: ἀξ. ἐ. ὁ ἐργ. τοῦ μισϑοῦ αὐτοῦ. Cf. Luke 
ἘΠῚ Mv Ss 

x, 11-15. . . . Cf. Hom. iii. 30, 31. 

SAMs oe oo ἘΠΟΠῚ ΣΥΠ hy 

x 

x 


μ 
_ 
- 


.29,30.. . . Cf. Hom. xii.31. 
od ode on =) ΟΕ Hom-sexiL9, 

ἘΠ Wiel se gp Cie ΠΟΤῚ. 17; 

xi. 25. . . . . Hom. viii. 6: ἐξομ. σ. πάτερ τοῦ οὐρ. καὶ τ. γ. ὅτι ἐκ. 
τ. & σ. πρεσβυτέρων καὶ ---νηπ. ϑηλάζουσιν. 
Cf. Hom. xvii. 5; xviii. 15. 

xi. 27... . . Hom. xvii. 4; xviii. 4: οὐδεὶς ἔγνω τὸν πατέρα εἰ μὴ 
6 υἱὸς ὡς οὐδὲ τὸν υἱόν τις oldev εἰ μὴ ὁ πατὴρ καὶ οἷς 
ἂν βούληται ὃ υἱὸς ἀποκαλύψαι. 

χὶ. 28. . . . . Hom. iii. 52: δεῦτε -- κοπιῶντες. 

xii. 26. . .. Hom. xix.2: εἰ ὃ Σ. τ--- π. οὖν αὐτοῦ στήκῃ F 
βασιλεία; 

xii. 34. . . * Hom. xix.7: ἐκ π΄ «. ὅτ: A. 

Se Ae aay sy aoe OMAN 95: 

xii. 42.  . . « Hom. xi. 33: Bao. ν. eyepd. μ. τ. y.— ἀπὸ τ. π. — 
BoA. wie καὶ οὐ πιστεύετε. 

UL ct ie) ς΄ δ LOM. Tle Do. 

SIs τς ve boo Of Hom: xix, 2. 

MUO trae Cf aor. vilier 7 

xv.13.  . . . Hom. iii. 52: πᾶσα >. —6 π. ὃ οὐρ. exp. 

Εν 19 1 « \- + OM. ΝΠ: 15. Ὁ. 

39* 


462 ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 


Matt. xvii.5..  . Hom. xvii. 53: οὗτος ἐστίν μου ὃ vids 6 ἀγαπητὺς εἰς 
ὃν evddKnoa τούτου ἀκούετε. 

Cf. Hom. xi. 16: διὰ πίστεως... . τὰ ὄρεσιν ἐοικότα. 
wee μεϑίστησι πάϑη. 

ΒΟ ΤΠ 0. πτερὸν LOM ΧΥΗΝ ἡ; 

Εν 117. τ σ΄ Hom. xii. 29. ΟΕ p:449.inum. 18. 

XIX ΘΙ, Ἀπ 20. ΠΟΙ ἫΠΙ 54; 

xix. 16-18. . . Cf. Hom. xviii. 3. 

xx. 16; xxii, 14. Hom. viii. 4: πολλ. KA. OA. δὲ eA. 

xxii. J-14. . . Cf. Hom. viii. 22. 

MMM 25.0 Ὁ Chom: 111.054: 

xxii. 32, . . . Hom. iii. 55: οὖκ ἔστιν ὃ. ν- ἀλλὰ (. 

RNG dats) , LOM. 11 LS: 

xxii. 13... . . Cf. Hom. xviii. 16. 

XXill. 25,26. . Hom. xi. 29: οὐαὶ 6. yp. καὶ φ. 6.6. K. τ. ποτ. ----τὸ 

ἐξ. ἐσ. δὲ γέμει ῥύπους. 

Xxiv.2,.04. τ . Hom. i. 15. 

xxiv. 45-51. . . Hom. iii. 60; 64. 

xxv.21. . . . Hom.iii. 65: εὖ 8.—moré. 

RV δ. - se LOM ἢ: ΟἹ: 

ἘΣ. ἈΠ. Ὁ τύ POMS πῖπ ο ΚΟ Kee Oy 

VIO ase) ΟΣ ἘΠ χν-: 


ΧΥΙ. 90. 


In addition to these passages there are others which present parallels 
with the remaining canonical Gospels. 


Mark iv. 34. . . Hom. xix. 20: διὸ καὶ τοῖς αὐτοῦ μαδηταῖς κατ᾽ ἰδίαν 
ἐπέλυε τῆς τῶν οὐρανῶν βασιλείας τὰ μυστήρια. 

vii. 26. . . . Hom. ii. 19 : Συροφοινίκισσα. 

ἘΠ ΡΟ. π΄ τ of eeLom. τ|0. 91. (68. vier 4]: 

Luke viii. 18, . Cf. Hom, xviii. 16 (κἂν δοκῇ ἔχειν). 

Xess ae oe Cl OMTexTXs 2. 

Ke2O5 ge he Ὁ ἐπ ELOM tix ee 

XVI Ξ8:. - HOM. κυ ἢ. 

xix. 1-10... . =>Cf. Hom. iii. 63. 

was. . τ ς om. xi..20: 

John iii. 5. . . Hom. xi. 26. 

1X. Lyk, ... Ser HOM PRIX ee 

9. . . . . Hom. iii. 52: ἐγώ εἰμι ἣ πύλη τῆς ζωῆς. 

27. . . . Hom. iii. 52: τὰ ἐμὰ πρόβατα ἀκούει τῆς ἐμῆς φωνῆς. 


IV. Tae Gosret or Marcron. 


Tertullian and Epiphanius! supply us with materials for reconstructing 
the Gospel which Marcion published as “the Gospel of the Lord,” or “of 


le. Heres. Xuit. pp. 309 seqq. It eral variations which occur in Epiph- 
will be sufficient for our purpose to anius appear to be later errors of 
refer only to Tertullian, who examines transcription, or errors of Epiphanius 
the Gospel of Marcion in the fourth himself. 
book of his treatise against him. Sey- 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL 60SPELS. 463 


Christ.” It does not appear that he made any additions to the Pauline 
narrative of St. Luke, which he adopted as the basis of his history ; and 
the following table! will show how much of it he recognized. In most 
cases the reasons for the changes and omissions will be evident, when we 


bear in mind the peculiar features of the Marcionite heresy. 


St. Luke. 


The first, second, and third chapters of St. Luke were 


wanting in Marciows Gospel, which began with the 


(aiteila)eet sc. Yt. VOrds): 


reign of Tiberius Cesar [God 5] 
came down to Capernaum, a city 


(At ei aes 


“Tn the fifteenth yearofthe ~~ 


Tertull. adv. 
Mare. iv.7. 


of Galilee, and was teaching on the Sabbath- -day.” 


iv. 32-37. . . υυ. 84--Ναζαρηνέ 

iv. 38,39. . . Doubtful. 

iv. 16-30. Omitting all reference to the Old Tes- id. iv. 8. 
tament, and in y. 1606 ἦν τεῦραμ- 
μένος and κατὰ τὸ ciwdds αὐτῷ. 

iy. 40-44. Entire. 

γ. 1-39. . Entire. In v. 14, ἵνα eis μαρτύριον ἢ id. iv. 9-11. 
ὑμῖν τοῦτο. pees: z 

vi. 1-49... Entire. In v. 17, κατέβη ἐν αὐτοῖς. Ξ * me 


vii, 1-28 ; 36-50 


. vv, 29—35 are opposed to Marcion’s 


view of the relation of John the Baptist to Jesus, 
and to his idea of the true Christian life. 


viii. 1-18 ; 20-56 ; Entire.5 
rb, Vy τος 


In v. 80 Marcion seems to have read 
συνέστησαν αὐτῷ (or rather ἔστησαν 


adv. Mare. 
iv. 19, 20. 
td. iv, 21—238. 


μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ) ; and in place of v. 31, 
only ὀφϑέντες ἐν τῃ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ." 


1In the construction of this table I 
have chiefly followed Hahn’s edition of 
Marcion’s Gospel, published in Thilo, 
Codex Apocryphus, pp. 4038-408; and I 
have throughout compared my own 
table with that given by De Wette 


(Einl. § ΤΊ δ), who quotes the’ results of- 


Riitschl’s investigations into the sub- 
ject. All the passages of St. Luke 
which were contained in Marcion’s 
Gospel are placed in the first column, 
and any significant variations are noted 
in the second. 

2 The Marcionites maintained the no- 
tion of a sudden and unexpected (subi- 
tum ex inopinato, Tertull. l. 6.) ap- 
pearance of the good Deity to frustrate 
the designs of the God of the Jews. 
a Neander, Church History, 11. pp. 

82, sq. 


8 Tertullian (adv. Mare. tiv. 11) 
acutely criticizes the impropriety of 
the sudden introduction of John the 
Baptist after the removal of the open- 
ing chapters of St. Luke’s Gospel. 
Marcion’s explanation of vy. 14, 36-39, 
may be seen in Boe a Mare. 
Iv. 9, 11 (pp. 210, 222). 

4 Marcion explained v. 23, and the 
“woe” in τ᾽. 24,so as to accord with 
his own views: Tertull. adv. Mare. iv. 
15. 

5 Marcion represented the announce- 
ment of “‘ the mother and brethren of 
Jesus”? as made “tentandi gratia:” 
adv. Mare. 1v. 19, p. 260. According to 
Epiphanius, 7 μήτηρ ---ὠἰδ. av. were 
wanting. 

6 The explanation which Marcion 
gave of the Transfiguration is interest- 


464 ON 


adv. Marc.iv.4, X. 1-11; 16-42. 


25. 
id. tv. 26, 27. 
52-54. 
id. iv. 28, 29 xii. 1-5; 8-59; 
id. iv. 30. xili 10-28. . . 
id. iv. 81. xiv. 1-6 ; 12-35. 
id. iv. 32. xv. 1-10. . 


id. iv. 88, 34. xvi. 1-31. 


v.21 -- πάτερ and καὶ τῆς γῆς. 


In v. 12, τὸ ἐμόν. 


SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 


The 
order in v. 22 was reversed by Mar- 
cion; v. 24 he probably read only 
ὅτι mp. οὐκ εἶδον ἃ ὑμεῖς βλέπετε. Vv. 
25= αἰώνιον. 


xi. 1-29; 33-48; Cf. Varr. Lectt. in v. 2; υ. 29=ei μὴ 


τὸ ony. "Iw.2 Inv. 42 he read 
κλῆσιν for κρίσιν, and = ταῦτα -- 


ἀφιέναι. 


In wv. 8, 9, ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ.ὃ 
Tn v. 28, for ᾿Αβραάμ ---- προφήτας, Mar- 


cion read πάντας τοὺς δικαίους, and 


* 
added ἐκβ. καὶ κρατουμένους 


ἔξω. 


Inv. 26, Marcion read καταλείπει for 


μισεῖ. 


In v. 10, ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ. Cf. xii. 


8, 9. 
In v. 17, for the 
last clause Marcion read : μοῦ ἢ τῶν 
λόγων μίαν Kep. 7.4 


xvii. 1-6 ; 11-37. Marcionadded inv. 2,e2 οὐκ ἐγεν- 


νήϑη ἢ [ei] Ac w; and inserted 
Luke iv. 27 after v. 14. 


Xvill. 1-30 ; 35-43. v. 837 = 6 Ναζωραῖος. Cf. iv. 34. 


In v. 32, for ἡ 
γενέα αὕτη, Marcion read ὁ οὐρανὸς 


καὶ ἡ γῆ. v. 36 = καὶ --- ἀνϑ ρώπου. 


XXii. 1-15 ; (17,18) υ. 8 = εἰσῆλθε δὲ σατανᾶς. 


50-56.° υ. 84 = διαμερίζόμενοι ---- κλῆρον. 


td. tv. 85. 
id. iv. 80. 
id. iv. 87. xix. 1-28; 47, 48. v. 9 = καϑότι--- ἐστίν. 
id. iv. 38. xx. 1-8; 19-36; Entire. 
39-47. 
id. iv. 89, xxi. 5-17 ; 19,20; νυ. 27=xal ddéns.5 
23-38. 
td. iv. 40, 41. 
19-29 ; 31-34; 
39-41 ; 45-48; 
52-71. 
id. iv, 42. XXili. 1-42; 44-46; v. 3 = τῶν Ιουδαίων. 
ing: adv. Marc. τν. 22. He justifies 


the apparent harshness of vv. 57 seqq. 

1 Cf. Tertull. adv. Marc. rv. 25, p. 293. 

2 Marcion supposed that ‘ the strong 
man armed” (v. 21) meant the Creator 
—the God of the Jews, and ‘the 
stronger man,’ the good Deity. Ter- 
tull. rv. 26, p. 299. 

3 Inv. 5, the “fearful God” is the 
Creator, who is also signified by ‘ the 


thief” (v. 89). Tertull. 7. 6. pp. 804, 
811. 

4 For Marcion’s explanation of the 
parable (19-31) see Tertull. 7. c. pp. 828 
seqq. The words sicut et lex et proph- 
ete (Tertull. 1v. 88) seem to be a com- 
ment of Tertullian. 

5 Marcion probably applied the pas- 
sage to the Jewish Messiah (Hahn). 

6 Epiphanius represents Marcion as 


ON SOME OF THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS. 465 


xxiv. 1-26 ; 28-47. v. 25, οἷς ἐλάλησεν ὑμῖν. v.82 = ὡς id. iv. 43. 
διην. Hu. τ. γραφάς. νυ. 57, φάντασια 
for πνεῦμα. v. 39 = ψηλαφήσατε, σάρκα. υ. 44 = 
ὅτι ---- ἐμοῦ. v. 45 = τότε ---- αὐτοῖς. v. 46 = ὅτι -- 
γέγραπται." 


No one of the remaining Apocryphal Gospels claims any special notice. 
The fragments quoted from the Gospel according to the Egyptians? have 
been already given ; and of the Gospels of Basilides, Cerinthus, Apelles, 
Matthias, we know little more than the names. But there is another class 
of writings also called Apocryphal Gospels, to which the Gospels of the 
Infancy and the Gospel of Nicodemus belong, which cannot be left wholly 
unnoticed. The narratives which we have hitherto examined were either 
based on the same oral traditions as the canonical Gospels, or revisions of 
the canonical texts ; but these enter on a new field, and illustrate the writ- 
ings of the New Testament more by the complete contrast which they 
offer to the spirit and style of the whole, than by minute yet significant 
divergences from particular books. The completeness of the antithesis 
which these spurious stories offer to the divine record appears at once — if 
we may be allowed fora moment to compare light with darkness — in 
relation to the treatment of the three great elements of the Gospel history, 
miracles, parables, and prophecy, the lessons of power, of nature, and of 
providence. In the Apocryphal miracles we find no 
worthy conception of the laws of providential interfer- 
ence; they are wrought to supply personal wants, or to gratify private 
feelings, and often are positively immoral. Nor, again, is there any spir- 
itual element in their working; they are arbitrary displays of power, and 
without any spontaneity on our Lord’s part or on that of the recipient. 
The Apocryphal Gospels? are also entirely without par- 
ables ; they exhibit no sense of those deeper relations 
between nature and man— between corruption and sin— which are so 
frequently declared in the Synoptic Gospels. And, at the same time, 
, they do not rise to the purely spiritual theology of St. John, which in its 
very essence rises above the mixed earthly existence of man. 

Yet more, they do not recognize the office of prophecy; they make no 
reference to the struggles of the Church, with the old 
forms of sin and evil reproduced from age to age, till 
the final regeneration of all things. History in them becomes a mere col- 
lection of traditions, and is regarded neither as the fulfilment of the past 
nor as the type of the future. 


As to miracles : 


Parables: 


Prophecy. 


introducing various changes into v. 2, 8 Compare the following passages in 
of which traces appear elsewhere. Cf. the Apocryphal Gospels: 


Tischdf. ad loc. (a) Gosp. Inf. 14-20, 38 (ed. Thilo). 
1 It appears that the end of Marcion’s Gosp. Thom. 5. 

Gospel was as abrupt as the commence- Gosp. Inf. 29, 47, 49. 

ment. Compare Hahn, /. ec. p. 486. (Ὁ) Gosp. Inf. 23, 86-7, 40. 
2 Cf, p. 448, n. 3. Gosp. Inf. 15, 17 sqq. 


466 A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL MIRACLES. 


The differences in style are not less than these differences in spirit. For 
the depth of a spiritual sequence we have affected explanations and irrele- 
vant details.! And the divine wisdom of our Gospels stands in clear con- 
trast to mere dreams of fancy, if we compare some Scripture story with 
obvious parallels in the most esteemed of the Apocryphal histories. Thus, 
we might refer to the cure of the damoniac (Gosp. Inf. 14), and the reci- 
tal in St. Luke (viii. 26—32); to the discourse from the Mount of Beati- 
tudes (Matt. v.—vii ), and the address from Mount Olivet ( Gosp. Joseph. 
I. sqq.); to the inspired records of the Crucifixion, and the Gospel of Nic- 
odemus. For even these wild legends have their use. If the corruptions 
of the Gospels lead us back to a common source preserved in our Canon, 
the fables of early times teach us how far the characteristics of the Gos- 
pels were above the natural taste of the first Christians. 


APPENDIX K&. 


A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL MIRACLES. 


Πιστευετέ μοι ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ 6 πατὴρ ἐν éuol εἰ δὲ μή, διὰ τὰ 
> \ 


ἔργα αὐτὰ πιστεύετε. ---- Sv. JOHN XIV. 11. 


I HAVE examined elsewhere” the general relations of the Gospel Mira- 
cles as a Revelation—a whole in themselves of singular harmony and 
completeness : at present it will be sufficient to give an outline of the 
results obtained, by presenting a classification of the Miracles, which will 
exhibit their mutual connections.? 


I. MIRACLES ON NATURE. 
1. MiracitEs OF CREATIVE POWER. 


(a) The Water made Wine: John ii. 1—12. 
Character changed. Christ the Source of Joy. 
(0) The Bread multiplied. 
a. Matt. xiv. 15—21; Mark vi. 35—44 ; Luke ix. 12— 
17; John vi. 5—14, 
b. Matt. xv. 32—39; Mark viii. 1—10. 
Substance increased. Christ the Source of Subsist- 


ence. 
1 Cf. Gosp. Inf. 50-2. 2 Characteristics of the Gospel Mira- 
47-8. cles, Cambr. 1889. 
Protey. S. Jac. 11. 8 The arrangement proposed is not 
Gosp. Joseph. 16, 17. offered as absolute or final. It offers, 


* 


A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL MIRACLES. 467 


(c) The walking on the Water: Matt. xiv. 22—26; Mark vi. 48, 
49; John vi. 16—21. 
Force controlled. Christ the Source of strength. 


2. MiracLes or PROVIDENCE. 
(a) Miracles of Blessing. 
a. The first Miraculous Draught of Fishes ; Luke vy. 1—11. 
The foundation of the outward Church. 
b. The Storm Stilled: Matt. viii. 23—27; Mark iv. 
385—41; Luke viii. 22—25. 
The defence of the Church from without. 
c. The Stater in the Fish’s Mouth: Matt. xvii. 24—27. 
The support of the Church from within. 
d. Thesecond Miraculous Draught of Fishes: John xxi. 
1—23. 
The Church of the future. 
(b) Miracle of Judgment. 
The fiy-tree cursed : Matt. xxi. 19 ff.; Mark xi. 20 ff. 


II. MIRACLES ON MAN. 
1. Mrracites oF PrersonaL ΕἌΙΤΗ. 
(a) Organic Defects (the Blind). 
a. Faith special. 
The two blind men in the house: Matt. ix. 29—31. 
b. Faith absolute. 
Bartimeus restored: Matt. xx. 29—84; Mark x. 
46—52; Luke xviii. 85—43. 
(Ὁ) Chronic Impurity. 
a. Open. Leprosy. 
Faith special. 
The one Leper: Matt. viii. 1—4; Mark i. 40—45; 
Luke v. 12—16. 
Faith special and absolute contrasted. 
The Ten Lepers: Luke xvii. 11—19. 
b. Secret. 
The Woman with the Issue: Matt. ix. 20—22; Mark 
y. 25—34 ; Luke viii. 43—48. 
2. Miracies oF INTERCESSION. 
(a) Organic Defects. (Simple Intercession.) 
a. The blind: Mark viii. 22—26. 
ὃ. The deaf and dumb: Mark vii. 31—37. 
(b) Mortal sicknesses. (Intercession based on natural ties.) 
a. Fever. 
The nobleman’s son healed : John iv. 46—54. 


unless Iam mistaken, one very natural exists. Deeper study may lay open 
and instructive view of relations which more subtle and profound points of 
are many-sided; and at least it is suf- union betwcen the different incidents. 
ficient to show that some connection 


468 A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL MIRACLES. 


ὁ. Paralysis. 
The centurion’s servant healed: Matt. viii. 5—13 ; 
Luke vii. 1—10. 
The man borne of four healed: Matt. ix. 1—8 ; Mark 
li. 1—12; Luke vy. 17—26. 


3. Mrracres or Love. 
(a) Organic Defect. 
The blind man healed: John ix. 
(b) Disease. 

a. The fever healed: Matt. viii. 14,15; Mark i. 29—34: 
Luke iv. 38—41. 

b. The dropsy healed: Luke xiv. 1—6. 

c. The withered hand restored : Matt. xii. 9—13 ; Mark iii. 
1—5; Luke vi. 6—11. 

εἰ. The impotent man restored : John vy. 1—17. 

e. The woman with a spirit of infirmity set free: Luke xiii. 
10—17. 

(c) Death. 

a. The Death-chamber. 

A girl raised: Matt. ix. 18 ff. ; Mark v. 22 ff.; Luke 
viii. 41 ff. 

b. The bier. 
A young man raised: Luke vii. 11—18. 

c. The tomb. 
A tried friend raised: John xi. 


III. MIRACLES ON THE SPIRIT-WORLD. 


1. Mrracies OF INTERCESSION. 
(a) Simple Intercession. 
a. A dumb man possessed by a devil: Matt. ix. 32—34. 
b. A blind anda dumb man: Matt. xii. 22 ff. Cf. Luke 
xi. 14 ff. 
(b) Intercession based on natural ties. 
a. The Syrophenician’s daughter healed: Matt. xv. 21—28 
Mark yii. 24—30. 
ὃ. The lunatic boy healed: Matt. xvii. 14 ff. ; Mark ix. 14 
ff.; Luke ix. 37 ff. 


2. Miracites OF ANTAGONISM. 


(a) In the Synagogue. 
The unclean spirit cast out: Mark i. 21—28; Luke iy. 
31—37. 


1 The healing of Malehus (Luke xxii. how the Divine Power represses and 
51) seems not to fall within the true remedies the eyils caused by inconsid- 
cycle of the Gospel Miracles either in erate zeal. 
character or import. We may see in it 


A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL PARABLES. 469 


(0) In the Tombs. 
The Legion cast out: Matt. viii. 28—34; Mark v. 1—17; 
Luke viii. 26—37. 


It will be seen that in the fundamental and crowning miracle of the 
Gospel — the Resurrection — all these forms of miracu- 
lous working are included. The course of nature was 
controlled, for there was a great earthquake ; the laws 
of material existence were overruled, for when the doors were shut Jesus 
came into the midst of His disciples, and when their eyes 74, σαίω, 51. 
were opened He vanished out of theirsight. The reign κί. χαυῖὶ, 53. 
of death was overthrown, for many of the saints came 
out of their graves and went into the Holy City. The — Matt. xxvii. 2. 
powers of the spiritual world were called forth, for an- a 
gels watched at the sepulchre and ministered to believ- 
ers. Thus full and harmonious is the whole strain of 
Scripture : All things are double, one against another, and God hath made 
nothing imperfect. 


Matt. xxviii. 2. 
John xx. 6. 


Wisd, xlii. 25. 


APPENDIX F. 


A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL PARABLES. 


Πάντα δισσά, ἐν κατέναντι τοῦ ἑνός" 


καὶ οὐκ ἐποίησεν οὐδὲν ἐλλεῖπον. --- ECCLUS. XLII. 24. 


WE have already endeavored to discover in the combination of the 
Gospel miracles the laws of Divine interference for the ΤΕΣ 
Redemption of man, and the proofs of the universality Parables to Mira- 
of the Saviour’s power; it will be our object now to point «ἰδϑ. 
out the converse truths from a consideration of the Parables: in them we 
shall seek to mark the lessons which we may learn from the Natural 
World on the progress and scope of Revelation, and the testimony which 
man’s own heart renders to the Christian Morality. Thus it is that the 
Miracles and Parables are exactly correlative to each other; in the one 
we see the personality and power of the Worker, and in the other the 
, generality and constancy of the Work; in the one we are led to refer the 
ordinary events of life to God, and in the other to consider their relation 
to man: in the one we are led to regard the manifoldness of Providence, 
and in the other to recognize the instructiveness of the Universe. 

The Parables in the Gospels may be presented in the following classifi- 
cation, if we consider the sources from which they are drawn. 


40 


470 A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL PARABLES. 


I, PARABLES DRAWN FROM THE MATERIAL WORLD. 


1, ΤῊΝ Sources oF THE ELEMENTS OF NATURAL OR SPIRITUAL 
Lire: 
(a) The Power of Good. The Sower: Matt. xiii. 3—8; Mark 
iv. 4—8; Luke viii. 5—8. 
(6) The Power of Evil. The Tares: Matt. xiii. 24—30. 


2. THE MODE OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT SILENT AND MYSTERIOUS. 
The Seed growing secretly: Mark iv. 26—29. 
8. THE FULNESS OF THEIR DEVELOPMENT: 


(a) An outward Growth. The Mustard-seed: Matt. xiii. 31, 32; 
Mark iv. 30—32 ; Luke xiii. 18, 19. 

(5) An inward Change. Zhe Leaven: Matt. xiii. 33; Luke 
xiii. 20, 21. 


II. PARABLES DRAWN FROM THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 


1. To tHe Lower Wor tp, as explaining his Connection also with 
higher Beings,’ while he 
(a) Destroys the worthless (capa). The Draw-net : Matt. xiii. 
47—50. 
(0) Labors with the unfruitful. The barren Fig-tree: Luke xiii. 
6—9. 
(c) Seeks to reclaim the lost, whether it has been lost 
a. By its own Wandering. The lost sheep: Matt. xviii. 12 
—14; Luke xv. 3—7. 
ὃ. By his Carelessness. The lost Drachma: Luke xy. 8 
—10. 


2. To u1s FELLOW-MEN : 
(a) In the Family, from the higher to the lower, as explaining 
his personal relations to God : 
a. Mercy. The unmerciful Servant : Matt. xviii. 23—35. 
Correlative: Gratitude. The two Debtors: Wuke vii. 41 
—43. 
b. Forgiveness. The prodigal Son: Luke xv. 11—32. 
Correlative: Obedience. The two Sons: Matt. xxi. 28 
—32. 
(Ὁ) In socian Lire, as explaining his Relations to the Church : 
a. Zeal in the Petition for Blessings : 
i. For others. The Friend at Midnight: Luke xi. 5—8. 
ii. For ourselves. The unjust Judge: Luke xviii. 1—8. 


1 Cf. Matt. xiii. 49,50: Luke xy.7 careless within the existing Church 
(χαρὰ ἔσται ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ" When were awakened). It is easy to see why 
the Redemption was accomplished): there is no corresponding clause in 
Luke xv. 10 (χαρὰ γίνεται ἐνώ- “the Prodigal Son.” 

Mov τῶν ἀγγέλων τοῦ δεοῦ" when the 


"» 


A CLASSIFICATION OF THE GOSPEL PARABLES. 471 


ὃ. Patience in the course of Life : 
i. For others, Endurance. The ten Virgins: Matt. xxv. 


1—138. 
ii. In ourselves, Self-denial. The lower Seats: Luke xiv. 
7—l1. 


c. Regard for outward Ordinances : 
i. As a feeling from within. The great Supper: Luke 
xiv. 15—24. 
ii. As required by their Dignity. The King’s Marriage- 
feast: Matt. xxii. 1—14. 
(c) IN REGARD TO HIS MEANS, as explaining the Devotion of 
our Endowments to God’s Service : 
a. Thoughtfulness in planning his Works, as to 
i. His own power : - 
Absolutely. The Tower-builder : Luke xiv. 28—30. 
Relatively. The King making War: Luke xiv. 31 


—33. 
ii. Their effects on others. The unjust Steward: Luke 
xvi. 1—9. 


ὃ. In his Works. 
i. As to himself, Fruitfulness : 
Absolutely. The Talents: Matt. xxv. 14—30. 
Relatively. The Pounds: Luke xix. 11—27. 
ii. As to others, Unselfishness. The wicked Husband- 
men: Matt. xxi. 383-44; Mark xii. 1—12; Luke 
xXx. 9—I8: 
c. After the completion of his Works : 
i. As to himself, Humility. The unprofitable Servants : 
Luke xvii. 7—10. 
ii. As to others, Dependence. The Laborers in the 
Vineyard: Matt. xx. 1—16. 
8. To ProvipENCcE, as teaching that spiritually as well as tempo- 
rally Advantages imply Duties, whether we obtain them 
(a) Unexpectedly. The hid Treasure: Matt. xiii. 44. 
(b) After a zealous Search. The Man seeking Peurls: Matt. 
xiii. 45, 46. 
(c) By natural Inheritance. The rich Fool: Luke xii. 16—21. 


There are still remaining three symbolic narratives which are usually 
ranked as Parables :—‘“ The Publican and Pharisee,” ‘The Good Sa- 
maritan,” and “ The Rich Man and Lazarus.” These, however, in their 
primary reference give direct patterns for action, and in their secondary 
meaning apply to classes, and not to individuals. It seems as if we may 
read in them the opposition of Christianity to Judaism, in its essential 
Spirituality, in its universal Love, and in its outward Lowliness. 


ADDITIONS FOR PAGE 367, 


RECEIVED TOO LATE FOR INSERTION THERE. SEE INTRODUCTION 
TO AMERICAN EDITION, p. X. 


2 The following parables are recorded by St. Mark. That which is peculiar to 
him is marked by Italics. 

1. The sower (iv. 4—8). 

2. The seed growing secretly (iv. 26—29). 

8. The mustard seed (iv. 90--- 82). a 

The unity and completeness of the lesson which these convey must be obvious 


without comment. 


b The miracles recorded by St. Mark are both numerous and characteristic of 
his Gospel. TPeculiar narratives are (as before) marked by Italics. 

1 The unclean spirit cast out (i. 21—28). 

2. The fever healed (i. 29—384). 

8. The leper cleansed (i. 40—45). 

4. The palsy healed (ii. 1—12). 

5. The withered hand restored (iii. 1—5) [iii. 10, 11, Many healed: unclean 
spirits cast out]. 

6. The tempest stilled (iv. 85—41). 
7. The legion cast out (v. 1—17). 

8. The woman with issue healed (v. 25—84). 

9. Jairus’ daughter raised (v. 22 ff ). 

10. The five thousand fed (vi. 85—44). 

11. The walking on the water (vi. 48, 49) [vi. 54 ff, all that touched Christ 
made whole]. 

12. The Syropheenician’s daughter healed (vii. 24—380). 

18. The deaf and dumb healed (vii. 81—37). 

14. The four thousand fed (viii. 1—10). 

15. The blind man healed (viii. 22—26). 

16. The deaf and dumb spirit cast out (ix. 14 ff). 

17. Bartimeus healed (x. 26—52). 

18. The fig-tree cursed (xi. 20 ff). 


dec INidD) os. 


ADVENT, attempts to fix the date of, 
142. 

ALEXANDRIA, the meeting-point of 
Judaism and Greece, 88. 

ANTIGONUS OF SOCHO, 86. 

ANTIOCHOS, effects of his persecution, 
85. 

APOCALYPSE, usage of term in New 
Testament, 34 7. 

APOCALYPSE AND PROPHECY CON- 
TRASTED, 93 7. 

APOCRYPHAL JEWISH BOOKS, 98; 
silent as to a personal Messiah, 112; 
Gospels (see Gospel), 454; sayings of 
our Lord, 445; works of our Lord, 
452. 

APoLoaists, on Inspiration, 412. 

APOSTLES, their relation to Christian- 
ity, 174. 

APpostLeEs, their different views of 
Christianity, 222. 

ASSEMBLY, the great, 81 

ATHENAGORAS ON INSPIRATION, 410. 

AUGUSTINE, his essay on the Gospels, 
251. 


BAPTISM OF OUR LoRD, accounts of 
the, 314. 
BARNABAS ON INSPIRATION, 408. 


Caius ON INSPIRATION, 417. 

CALVINISTIC VIEW OF INSPIRATION, 
81. 

CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 77 22. 

CLAUDIUS APOLLINARIS ON INSPI- 
RATION, 413. 

CLEMENS (Rom.) ON INSPIRATION, 404. 

CLEMENS (Alex.) ON INSPIRATION, 
425. ὦ 

CLEMENTINE HOMILIES ON INSPIRA- 
TION, 441. 


40* 


CLEMENTINE RECOGNITIONS ON IN- 
SPIRATION, 443. 

COMPLETENESS OF HOLY SCRIPTURE, 
53-59. 

CoNCORDANCES between the Gospels, 


CONNECTING PHRASES used by the 
Evangelists, 845 m.; (last journey to 
Jerusalem), 378 2. 

CRUCIFIXION, Synoptic narratives of 
the, 321; day of the, 289 n.; 388. 

CYPRIAN ON INSPIRATION, 422. 


DIFFICULTIES OF THE GOSPELS, their 
origin, 387; their usefulness, 398. 

DI0GNETUM (Ep. ad.) ON INSPIRATION, 
407. 

Doctors, sayings of the later, 91. 


EcCLESIASTICUS, 91. 

EsprAs 2, its character, 126; its doc- 
trine of Messiah, 129. 

EssEenES of Palentinian origin, 89 n. 

EVANGELISTS not conspicuous in his- 
tory, 229. 

EVANGELISTS, their emblems, 250. 


FAITH AND REASON in relation with 
Scripture, 392. 
FLIGHT INTO EeyryT, 318 n. 


GEMARA, singular reference to Messiah, 
153. 

GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD, 310 2. 

“GOSPEL,” use of term, 180; oral in 
origin, 198, 212; facts mentioned in 
Acts of the Apostles, 183; the Epis- 
tles, 185; its first preaching historic, 
182, 191. 

GosPELs, the four, their general char- 
acter, 46, 178, 212, 286, 387; inspired 


474 


history, 218; embody Apostolic 
preaching, 178, 229; order of their 
composition, 214 ».; their distinctive 
character, 221, 229, 387; their real 
unity, 252; their difficulties, 3886; 
their historical authority, 389. 

GOSPEL according to the Hebrews, 
454; according to the Egyptians, 448 n. 

GOSPEL of the Ebionites, 457; of the 
Clementine Homilies, 460; of Mar- 
cion, 462; of the Infancy, 465; of 
Nicodemus, 465: 

GRAMMATICAL INTERPRETATION OF 
HOLY SCRIPTURE ESSENTIAL, 60, 889. 

GREEK LANGUAGE, omen of universal 
religion, 103. 

GREEK THOUGHT IN CONTACT WITH 
JUDAISM (Alexandria), 838. 


HAGIOGRAPHA, their character due to 
captivity, 80. 

HEATHEN ALLUSIONS TO AN EXPECTED 
Messi AH, 151. 

“HEAVEN”  SYNONYMOUS 
“Gop,” when first used, 86 7. 

HEBREWS, Epistle to the, its testimony 
to the Gospel, 189. 

HEGESIPPUS ON INSPIRATION, 412. 

Hewnocu, Book of, clearness of Messi- 
anic doctrine, 117. 

HERETICS, their adoption of the sey- 
eral Gospels, 244. 

HERMAS ON INSPIRATION, 406. 

HIPPOLYTUS ON INSPIRATION, 418. 

HistoRY OF HUMAN RACE CENTRES 
IN THE GOSPEL, 69. 

HisToRY OF JEWISH PEOPLE, its im- 
portance, 71. 


WITH 


IGNATIUS ON INSPIRATION, 405. 

INSPIRATION, different theories of, 80; 
defined, 34,389; combines the divine 
and human, 218; various forms of, 
387; proofs of, 48; claimed in the New 
Testament, 48 n.; opinions of the 
fathers of the first three centuries on, 
402, 445. 

INTERPRETATION, grammatical 
spiritual, 59, 389. 

IREN2ZUS ON INSPIRATION, 418. 


and 


JAMES, St., his testimony to the Gos- 
pel, 186. 


INDEX. 


“JEsus Canist,” use of title in the 
Gospels, 296 n. 

JEWISH THOUGHT, development of, 
71; later doctrine of the Messiah, 
155; people, affected by the captivity, 
75; contrast between Galilee and 
Judxa, 287; literature, outline of, 
108. 

JOHN, St. (Baptist), how mentioned by 
St. Matthew and St. Luke. 851 n. 

JOHN, St. (Evang.), his character, 302; 
his life, 242, 255; analysis of Gos- 
pel, 280; its poetical conception, 274; 
language, 264 n., 268 n.; style, 268; 
contrasts to the Synoptists, 254, 284; 
coincidences with the Synoptists, 291, 
295 n.; coincidences with St. Paul, 
306 n.; quotations from the Old Tes- 
tament, 283 n.; adapted by the Valen- 
tinians, 249; rejected by the Alogi, 
263; his account of the resurrection, 
332; his Epistles, their testimony to 
the Gospel, 189. 

JOSEPHUS, rejection of Messianic hope, 
150. 

JUBILEES, Book of, no reference to the 
Messiah, 182. ; 

JUDE, St., his testimony to the Gospel, 
186. 
JUSTIN 
408. 


MARTYR ON INSPIRATION, 


KABBALA, its doctrine of Messiah, 
156. 

Kosmos, mundus, won, 507.; (6 κόσ- 
fos), how used by St. John, 266 νι. 
(See World). 


Law, the, statedly read after the cap- 
tivity, 79 2. 

“ Lire” (ἡ (ζωή), how used by St. John, 
265 n. 

“ Liagut” (τὸ Pas), 266 n. 

Locos (see Word), use of term in 
LXX. and New Testament, 264 n. 

Lorp, our, identity of character in 
Gospels, 296. 

Lost TRIBES, Jewish tradition on, 131, 
155. 

LuK®, St., analysis of Gospel, 370 n.; 
language of Gospel, 883 n.; connected 
with St. Paul, 195, 289; adapted by 
the Marcionites, 248; preface, 196, 


INDEX. 


241 n.; his account of the crucifixion, 
825; his account of the resurrection, 
891. 


MANETHO, contemporary with LXX., 
96 n. 

Mark, St., analysis of Gospel, 863 
n.; language of Gospel, 365; con- 
nected with St. Peter, 191, 235; 
adapted by the Docete, 247; his ac- 
count of the crucifixion, 323; his 
account of the resurrection, 331. 

Mary, V., not mentioned by name in 
St. John, 292 n. 

MatTrTuHeEw, St., analysis of Gospel, 348 
n.; language of Gospel, 360 7.; his- 
tory of Gospel, 194 n.; Aramaic origi- 
nal of Gospel, 2381; quotations from 
Old Testament, 232 n.; adapted by 
the Ebionites, 245; his account of 
the crucifixion, 322; his account of 
the resurrection, 330. 

MELITO ΟΝ INSPIRATION, 412. 

MEssIAH, earlier doctrine developed 
in Old Testament, 110; later doctrine 
developed in New Testament, 141; 
distinguished from the “ Word,” 162 
m.; distinguished from Shekinah, 
Metatron, etc., 159 n.; preéxistent, 
155 n.; suffering, 156 n.; dying, 181; 
character not openly claimed by our 
Lord, 147 n.; usage of Word in New 
Testament, 147 n. 

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES, Jewish in- 
terpretation of, 168. 

Ministry oF our Lorp, its length 
uncertain, 289 ». 

Mrrac es, their character, 50; record- 
ed by St. Matthew, 353 n.; recorded 
by St. Mark, 362 n., 807, 472; recorded 
by St. Luke, 374; recorded by St. 
Jobn, 283 7. ; of the Gospels classified, 
466. 

Misuna, reference to Messiah, 152. 

ΔΙΥΒΤΙΟΙΒΝ OF THE ΕΞΒΕΝΕΒ, 89; of 
the Therapeute, 100; of the IKab- 
balists, 156. 


NOVATIAN ON INSPIRATION, 417. 
OBJECTIONS TO THE GOSPELS, their 


origin, 387; their uncertainty, 391. 
Οὐ TESTAMENT, history of Canon 


415 


obscure, 77 2).; how quoted in the 
Gospels, 282, 283 m., 399; its suf- 
ficiency in primitive times, 181, 190. 

OMISSIONS IN THE GOSPELS, 286. 

ORIGEN ON INSPIRATION OF SCRIP- 
TURE, 429; on interpretation of 
Scripture, 433. 

ORPHIC AND SIBYLLINE WRITINGS, 
98. 


PAGANISM, essentially local, 103. 

PARABLES, their character, 51; to 
whom addressed, 288; recorded by 
St. Matthew, 356 7.; recorded by St. 
Mark, 362 n., 867, 472; recorded by 
St. Luke, 375; their analogies in St. 
John, 290; classified, 469. 

PARALLELISM a poetic feature in St. 
John, 274. 

Passion, our Lord’s, Synoptic narra- 
tives of, 321. 

Passover, last, uncertainty of date, 
289 20. 

PAUL, St., his teaching compared with 
St. John’s, 306 ».; his Epistles, their 
testimony to the Gospel, 187. 

PECULIARITIES OF THE GOSPELS, 
their amount and value, 201. 

PETER, St., his name, 202 n., 299 .; his 
character, 299; his denial, 301 7.; his 
Epistles, their testimony to the Gos- 
pel, 186. 

PHILO, scope of his teaching, 99; scope 
of his doctrine of Messiah, 148; scope 
of his doctrine of the Word, 163. 

PuHILOSOPRY, its work in preparing for 
Christianity, 104. 

PRAYER developed during the captiv- 
ity, 78. 

PREACHING the first form of Christian 
doctrine, 177, 179. 

PROPHECIES OF MESSIAH, how ex- 
plained by the Jews, 168; of Old 
Testament, how quoted in New Testa- 
ment, 52, 53 7). 

“PSALMS OF SOLOMON,” clear refer- 
ence to Messiah, 140. 


QuoTATIONS of our Lord, 399; of the 
Evangelists, 53 m., 400; confirm the 
Hebrew Matthew, 282 n.; referred to 
Messiah, explained by Jews, 168; in 
St. John’s Gospel, 283 n. 


476 


RESURRECTION predicted in Book of 
Henoch, 128; of body confined to 
the righteous in Book of Henoch, 128 
n.; our Lord’s, four narratives of, 327. 

Roman Empire identical with civil- 
ized world, 106; suggestive of a 
universal religion, 104. 


SAMARITAN DOCTRINE OF MESSIAB, 
171. 

SANHEDRIM, its origin, 79 2. 

SAYINGS OF OUR LORD, apocryphal, 
446. 

SroTs, their rise among the Jews, 86; 
at Corinth, 245 n. 

SEPTUAGINT VERSION, its history, 96; 
reference to Messiah doubtful, 134. 
SERMON ON THE MownrtT, outline of, 

352 γι. 

SHECHINAH, whether applied to Mes- 
siah, 159 n., 162 n. 

SIBYLLINE BOOKS conceive a univer- 
sal theocracy, 98; their testimony to 
Messiah, 114. 

Simon Magus, the Antichrist of first 
age, 238. 

SIMON THE JUST, his great maxim, 82. 

“Son or GOD,” usage of phrase, 145 n. 

SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION OF HOLY 
SCRIPTURE, 68. 

SYNAGOGUE AND SCHOOLS, their rise, 
72, 79. 

SYNOPTIC GOSPELS, their agreements, 


INDEX. 


200; their differences, 205; order of 
composition, 214 .; contrasted with 
St. John, 220; unchronological, 348. 


TARGUMS, their date, 136 n.; their clear 
reference to Messiah, 135; their clear 
reference to the Word, 162. 

TATIAN ON INSPIRATION, 410. 

TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD, accounts 
of, 316. 

TERTULLIAN ON INSPIRATION, 420. 

THEOPHILUS ON INSPIRATION, 411. 

THERAPEUT&, 100. 

TITLES OF THE GOSPELS, 218 n.; on the 
Cross, 236 7. 

“TRADITION OF THE ELDERS,’ Mish- 
na, Talmud, 88. 

TRANSFIGURATION, narratives of, 318. 

“Trout” (7 ἀλήϑεια), how used by 
St. John, 266 n. 


VERBAL COINCIDENCES BETWEEN THE 
Synortists, 203. 


‘““WispomM oF SoLomon,” 101. 

‘“ WorpD,” doctrine of the, in Palestine, 
161; in Egypt, 163; in St. John, 264 
n., 267; not applied to Messiah by 
Henoch, 126 n.; by Targums, 159 n., 
162 n.; by Philo, 149 »., 166. 

WORLD, state of the, at the Advent, 
105; 6 κόσμος, how used by St. John, 
266 n. 


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